Boulevard Magazine - November 2012 Issue

NOVEMBER 2012

+

light designs

banish darkness

warming porridge for cold days

steep powder in revelstoke

                            Call now to book your complimentary portfolio review and objective second opinion

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CONTENTS November 2012 Issue 11, Volume XXI

22

36 44

70

FEATURES 22 ART FROM THE TRENCHES

By Tom Hawthorn

19 LETTERS A gene? How about

the environment

33

26

CREATIVE MINDS The dragonfly dude

By Jude Isabella

36

COWICHAN A business spreads from honey

By Susan Down

GRIEF GOES ONLINE — and it helps

By Carolyn Heiman

COLUMNS 20 HAWTHORN The duty of remembrance

By Tom Hawthorn 30

41

STATE OF THE ARTS Enter the creative zone

By Alisa Gordaneer 44

DEPARTMENTS 16

CONTRIBUTORS

18 EDITOR’S LETTER

SOCIAL CAPITAL The global gourmet indulges around town

By Adrien Sala FRONT ROW Alt-country’s BettySoo; Navy art; Les Ballets Jazz; Kafka; and more

By Robert Moyes

56

HOT PROPERTIES Playing with light on Mayne Island

By Carolyn Heiman

92

70

DESIGN MATTERS What light through yonder fixture breaks?

By Sarah MacNeill

94 CAR CULTURE Blasting off with a racing champ

By Stuart Eastwood

74

HEALTH & WELLNESS Cross-training for the aging brain

By Shannon Moneo

96

WRY EYE We’re the Yankee Doodle Dandies?

By Tom Hawthorn

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SECRETS & LIVES Ramona FroehleSchacht, Founder of the Out of Hand Artisan Fair

By Shannon Moneo

78 TRAVEL NEAR “Pow days” at Revelstoke

By Adrienne Coburn 82

FOOD & WINE Please, porridge hot

By Maryanne Carmack and Sharon McLean

LIVING LARGE Classy cashmere coats

By Kayleigh von Wittgenstein

On our cover: Two flower vases created out of 75-mm shell casings from the First World War from the collection of Stephen Lamb. Photo by Gary McKinstry.

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ISSN 1196-6807

Find and follow us on: 1196 6807 14

Tom hawthorn,

one of our regular columnists, is the son of a soldier and the grandson of a soldier. Born in Winnipeg and raised in Montreal and Toronto, he grew up in a household where military history was studied but not glorified. He remembers his Sgt. Rock comic books ending with the message “Make war no more.” He writes about trench art and the Holocaust in this issue, before turning a Wry Eye on our southern neighbours. usually writes about our exterior world each month, when she describes some of the nicest homes in the Greater Victoria region in the Hot Properties column. That continues in this month’s issue with her story about a Mayne Island home. But, in addition, she opens the door on a personal story that looks at our interior world of grief and how social media are shaping it in unexpected ways.

Carolyn Heiman

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Jude Isabella spent

over 10 years as managing editor of YES Mag, a Canadian science magazine for kids.

She has written for The Walrus, New Scientist and BBC Wildlife Magazine, among others. Isabella is also a contributor to The Tyee, Vancouver’s online magazine, covering science and the environment.

She continues to write science for kids; her fifth book (Kids Can Press, Chit Chat: A Celebration of the World’s Languages) is scheduled for a fall 2013 release. She is working on a book for adults, Salmon: A Scientific Memoir.

She writes this month about entomologist Rob Cannings.

Journalist Shannon Moneo had a hard time remembering the order of the dozen-plus communities she grew up in across Western Canada but she resolved to make an accurate list after learning about aging brains.

She writes this month about how to keep mentally agile in Health & Wellness. Visiting the very sharp seniors at Berwick Royal Oak was an inspiration.

Each month she also gets out of the Sooke wilderness for one of her favourite assignments, interviewing fascinating, accomplished and inspiring people for Secrets & Lives.

Your Style Your Way

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EDITOR’S LETTER

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Last March, writer Tom Hawthorn and I were privileged to get a private, behind-thescenes tour of the Royal BC Museum. I knew it could be the source of stories for us and so far three have come out of it. That day, David Alexander, the RBCM communications manager, tipped us that the Sisters of St. Ann would soon donate their archive to the museum, leading to Alisa Gordaneer’s feature on the nuns in our July issue.

In the natural history department, we talked with curator and entomologist Rob Cannings, who showed us robber flies he was categorizing, explaining why they were important. When science writer Jude Isabella later proposed a profile on the retiring Cannings, I was primed to accept it. Her story on him runs this month and I welcome Jude’s wonderful writing to our pages.

In human history, Tom and I saw boxes and flannel bags waiting to be evaluated by curator Lorne Hammond, who showed us their contents: enormous shell casings etched with intricate designs by soldiers in the First World War. “Trench Art,” Hammond said. Tom nodded in understanding. I went, “huh?”

I’d never heard of trench art, but I was immediately moved by the thought of young men, so far from home, mired in the muck of that terrible war, compelled to create something new, and often beautiful, out of the destruction around them. Sometimes they hammered out the pattern with just a nail and a rock. It spoke to me of indomitable human spirit. When Hammond told us that one of Canada’s largest trench art collections was in James Bay, Tom and I knew it would be a November feature.

Many thanks to collector Stephen Lamb, who welcomed us into his home, let photographer Gary McKinstry take precious items into his studio, and helped me caption the photos.

Remembrance is a theme this month, and Carolyn Heiman writes powerfully of how the process of remembering deceased loved ones is morphing in the social media age. Shannon Moneo tells us how to help safeguard our memories as we age.

We temper some of this sober, serious content with lighthearted fare, too — getting inside a lovely Mayne Island home, featuring some artful lighting fixtures, profiling the business success of a Cowichan couple and more. Next month, I promise, we will feature festive seasonal content. But my instinct, as the curator of this magazine, is that our sophisticated, intelligent readers want substance as well as style in these pages. And perhaps like me, this Remembrance Day you will now picture a young soldier hammering out a flower amidst the mud. VB Anne Mullens, Managing Editor

YOUR LETTERS Genes? What about the cultural environment?

I almost choked on my low-fat, high-fibre, organic, local, gluten-free, heirloom tomato sandwich when I read Deadly Eating Disorders (October). A gene and chronic stress responsible for eating disorders?! But no mention of our toxic cultural environment and its strict image of female beauty — young, thin and flawless? Compounding that effect is our fixation with food as fashion, not fuel. Genes may “load the gun” for dysfunction, but culture pulls the trigger.

Alicia Priest

Honouring memories with music I was delighted to read John Threlfall’s article (October) celebrating the art of Paula Jardine. I had the privilege to sing at her exquisite So(u)lstice event with the a capella group, Ensemble Laude, directed by Elizabeth MacIsaac. We love performing at So(u)lstice, raising our voices to sing glorious music that honours the memory of loved ones interred both in the mausoleum and in the wider park. The music fills all the corners of the marble building, dancing into the hearts and souls of the listeners. Thank you for showcasing the art of Paula Jardine. Long may she bring her special gifts to the people of Victoria and beyond.

Kate von Känel

Friends, wannabe-friends, causes and more Congratulations on another slam dunk edition of Boulevard. I was delighted to read about people I know (Penny Tennenhouse, an organizer of the Sock Project), people I'd like to know (Timothy Vernon, artistic director of Pacific Opera Victoria), causes I support (microlending) and topics that were completely new to me (the history of Paldi, an artist who celebrates cemeteries). I also appreciate your extensive arts coverage and the new personal finance column.

Interesting, insightful, relevant — keep up the good work!

Stephanie Slater

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“Patients find it reassuring that with their Botox and Juvederm, moles of concern are also checked,” says Dr. Hancock.

Proud to be a union man Tom Hawthorn’s excellent October column touched on some reasons for public antipathy towards unions. Studies show unionized workplaces generally have better wages/salaries, fringe benefits and other conditions of employment than nonunion workplaces. They offer dignity, respect and job security.

All grievances over contract clauses can go to independent arbitration if they cannot be settled mutually. Unions remain a darn good idea. And union dues are money well spent. I was happy to pay my dues for 36 years.

Roger Stonebanks We welcome your letters: editor@victoriaboulevard.com or visit us on Facebook, and on Twitter @BoulevardMag.

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We must never forget For a boy of seven, the image was arresting: A pair of child’s shoes in a glass case. Above them, an oversized photograph of a boy in a coat and short pants. His socks are pulled high and his knees are bare. He wears a cap on his head and fear on his face. His tiny arms are aloft in surrender.

Behind him stand menacing soldiers armed with rifles.

The major attraction on display at the Israel pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal were archaeological treasures from the Holy Land, foremost among them a Dead Sea Scroll. It has faded from my memory in a way the boy never has.

Just three years later, I was troubled by a painting in an exhibition by university students. It depicted a row of giant ovens, fires burning within as bodies are shoved in like fleshy coal. The doors to the oven were marked with a symbol of crooked crosses that I’d later learn were swastikas.

In Grade 6, the school day would start with the teacher reading the list of books overdue from the library. The new boy got lots of snickers from his classmates for not being punctual in returning Diary of a Young Girl. The others had never heard of Anne Frank.

By the time I was in high school, I knew the meaning of the faded blue numbers tattooed on the inside of the left forearm of the woman selling bagels in the local bakery.

“SECRECY WAS PARAMOUNT” As a reporter, I interviewed Rudolf Vrba, a biochemistry professor at the University of British Columbia. He was one of only five Jews to escape from the secret Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. With fellow escaped prisoner Alfred

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JOB #H123-13888 INSERTION DATE: NOVEMBER, 2012 PUBLICATION: BOULEVARD MAGAZINE

Wetzler, he tried to warn the surviving Jews in Hungary, as well as the Allies, about the crimes — the gassings and the cremations — being committed by the Nazis. The Vrba-Wetzler report’s 32 pages offer an eyewitness account of the mass atrocity as it was being committed. “Auschwitz was a murder camp for two years and no one knew,” Vrba told me. “Secrecy was paramount, and here’s why it was paramount that I escape — to break the secrecy.” The two of us sat in the Faculty Club, sipping coffee, a mundane act made memorable by the presence of an ordinary man who, placed in an unimaginable circumstance, tried to change the course of history.

Every November, we mark Remembrance Day, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month marking the end of the Great War, later to be known as the First World War. A harbinger of the coming conflagration occurred throughout Germany on the night of November 9-10, 1938. A pogrom sanctioned by the Nazi government led to the death of about 100 Jews, the arrest of 30,000, and attacks on untold Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses. It is remembered as Kristallnacht (Night of Crystal) for all the broken glass that littered German streets. The atrocity was widely reported at the time by foreign correspondents, a prelude of the horrors to come.

FROM LIVING TO RECORDED MEMORY The duty of remembrance is a heavy one. The history of this great crime from the previous century must be taught to each new generation, a task that will become harder in coming years as the Holocaust goes from living memory to recorded memory.

The New York Times recently featured a story of young Israelis who had the concentration camp tattoos of their grandparents recreated on their own forearms, a permanent remembrance done in indelible ink.

Earlier this year, a dozen students from the University of Victoria travelled to Central Europe on a pilgrimage. The I-Witness Holocaust Field School Project, run by the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, is the first of its kind to be conducted by a Canadian university. The project is intended to provide lessons about racism, genocide and anti-Semitism.

In Berlin, the scholars visited a synagogue, walked to a square used for Nazi book burnings; mourned victims at the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe; in Prague, toured the Jewish Museum and the Old Jewish Cemetery; in Warsaw, paid homage at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, at the Monument to the Victims of Katyn, at the Monument to the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The students met a survivor, as well as a psychotherapist who works with the children and grandchildren of survivors. They also went to the site of the camps at Bergen-Belsen, Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz, from which Vrba bravely escaped almost seven decades ago.

We must never forget. It is our obligation.

Tom Hawthorn is a freelance newspaper and magazine writer who lives in Victoria. He writes a monthly column for Boulevard.

Deadlines, a collection of his favourite obituaries for the Globe and Mail, was released by Harbour Publishing in October. VB

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TRENCH ART In soldiers’ hands, works of art emerged from weapons of war

By TOM HAWTHORN photography by gary mckinstry

T

he study walls are lined with

shelves and those shelves are lined with brass, marked with numbers on masking tape.

At first glance, the showcased items seem unrelated. The jumbled collection looks like it could be found at any antique store. There are jugs and bells, ashtrays and cigar cutters, cigarette lighters and wine glasses, lamps and serviette rings.

In the upstairs study of his James Bay home, Stephen Lamb maintains what remains of a lifetime of collecting. Over the years, he gathered hundreds of pieces created by what the French called artisanat de tranchées — artisans of the trenches. Soldiers crafted these mementoes for their own use, or as gifts, or as objects to be sold. When peace at long last came, some of these items returned to the battlefield, souvenirs to be peddled to holidaying families. In English, the items are known as trench art.

“What you see here,” Lamb said, his native England still evident on his tongue, “has come from something which was used to kill. It has been turned into a beautiful object — a vase, a candlestick, a lamp, a paperweight, a beer mug, a little coal scuttle. An object of beauty to show you what can be done in the right hands.”

Lamb, now 79, knows it is time to disperse his treasures. Pieces have been sent back out into the world. The Royal BC Museum bought several. He’s waiting to hear back from the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. In Belgium, an institution known as the In Flanders Field Museum has acquired some of Lamb’s collection, returning to a now-peaceful town what had been forged on the battlefield by desperate men a century ago.

James Bay resident Stephen Lamb has amassed more than 600 pieces of trench art over the years, which he is now dispersing to museums across Canada and in Europe.

“War is filled with horror and Violence and Loss and Sacrifice. Yet Here is a form of Art that emerges from weapons of destruction.” ~ Lorne Hammond, curator, Royal BC Museum.

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A PILOT’S GLOVE WAS A TROPHY Lamb began accumulating these historic, one-of-a-kind pieces more than four decades ago. He was offered a 105mm casing from what was said to be the last shell fired in the Second World War by No. 44 Battery of the 13th Field Regiment of the Royal Canadian Artillery. That object from the battlefields of Western Europe was the first of 600 in his collection. From the trenches of the Great War through the great battles of the Second World War to the numbered hills of the Korean War to the rice paddy skirmishes of Vietnam, idle soldiers have crafted art from such detritus of armed conflict.

As a boy, he lived in Epsom, southwest of London, where his father was a schoolmaster before being called away to war. The Battle of Britain took place overhead. “There were a couple of anti-aircraft guns at the end of our road,” he said.

“Every night during the raids they would fire away. In the morning, stuff was all over the place — shrapnel, big brass shell casings. If you were quick, they’d let you have it.”

He was six when the war started, 12 when it ended. “We cut our teeth on Jane’s Fighting Ships and Aircraft,” he said. He studied cards of plane silhouettes like a Canadian kid would hockey cards. To this day he can still identify the outline of Second World War airplanes.

When, on rare occasion, a German plane was shot from the sky, the neighbourhood boys raced to the crash site. “One of my best friends got a treasure we all wanted,” he said. “A pilot’s glove. To us, this was a real trophy.”

Over those years of war, he became accustomed to the sound of fighters and doodlebugs (Germany’s V-1 flying bombs). At war’s end, fathers, brothers and uncles returned home with war souvenirs. The teachers at his school were veterans, so his interest in military history was fully indulged.

Lamb became a physiotherapist and came to Canada in 1964.

ART EMERGES FROM WEAPONRY When Lamb began to disperse his collection, Lorne Hammond of the Royal BC Museum paid a visit. He sought out items with a connection to the province, finding about four dozen pieces that have been added to the museum’s permanent collection.

“As any veteran knows, war is filled with horror and violence and loss and sacrifice,” said Hammond, who is the museum’s curator of history. “Yet here is a form of art that emerges from weapons of destruction.”

They’re complicated objects, Hammond said. “Some of them are made in the trench from objects littering a destroyed landscape around them. Some of them are the work of wounded people recovering. Some of them are the work of French artisans who saw their tourist industry destroyed by war and realized the countryside was filled with leftover brass.”

These objects will likely be a key part of a display to mark the centennial of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

Lamb’s upstairs room is one man’s museum dedicated to the artistry of men now lost to history. Many of the pieces have

  Belts sporting cap



badges from fallen

soldiers in the First and Second World Wars.

 Flower vases created

out of 75-mm shell casings from the First World War.



Functional ornaments include a gun turret ashtray made out of a piece of a German

 



battleship; a cap ashtray made from a shell casing and a bell made from a fuse cap.

 More functional

ornaments include a letter opener made out of a rifle-round; a match-safe out of scap metal; a miniature card case made out of a German belt buckle; and a cigarette lighter from a casing.

 Three

flower vases made from German shell casings, engraved with designs, names and places.

engraved onto them names of terrible battles, places in which warriors were scythed to the ground like sheaves of wheat — Mons, Ypres, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele.

He has a paperweight made from bullets and an ashtray forged from a piston scavenged from a Spitfire. It is decorated with the inscription of Churchill’s famous oration to honour the pilots of the Battle of Britain: “Never was so much owed by so many to so few.” These were sold by veterans to raise funds for the Royal Air Forces Association, a charitable group.

A few years ago, he found at a flea market at Ypres in Belgium an oil lamp made from a 75-mm French shell casing

on which had been engraved the Gallic rooster. It cost the equivalent of $50, a small price. Even as he disperses his collection, he plans to hang on to this piece, a reminder of what idle hands could create, using materials at hand, when given respite from war.

“The people who made it are gone,” Lamb said. “The people for whom they made it are mostly gone. Trench art is fading away.”

Yet the inspiration behind the pieces — the desire to create beauty from weapons of war — is timeless.

“As the Good Book says, from swords into plowshares.” VB 25

CREATIVE MINDS

Even in retirement,

a lifelong insect lover

will not put down his net

By JUDE ISABELLA portrait by troy moth

P

oised on a rock, net in hands, Rob Cannings intently shows off an unlikely skill — how to catch a dragonfly without damaging it, in less than a minute.

Surrounded by suburban homes and sports fields, a small pond hides behind shrubs and trees at Beckwith Park in Saanich. Dragonflies swoop along the pond’s edge, oblivious to the scientist from the Royal British Columbia Museum. Cannings, 64, has collected, identified, and extolled the virtues of insects to school kids for over 30 years as the museum’s curator of entomology. For some kids, with lives as programmed as their parents, their only exposure to hands-on biology is through scientists like Cannings at institutions like the RBCM. Cannings laughs and says, “I’m old,” when asked why he’s retiring in December. But he still has the air of the lanky young naturalist about him.

The long-handled net swishes through the air. The caught dragonfly buzzes its protest. It’s easy to see how one would be drawn to an insect that looks as if it emerged from a time machine dialed to 300 million years ago: they’re bad ass! Dragonfly ancestors had wingspans 60-centimetre-plus, as big as a male Cooper’s hawk. These days the largest grow to 12 centimetres. Yet it is easy to damage them with a net. Cannings has not done that in hundreds of captures. Or thousands.

NATURE WAS NATURAL IN THIS FAMILY As a boy growing up in the Okanagan, he announced his inner entomologist through a hobby

— collecting butterflies and moths. The natural world was a natural place for the Cannings clan; the four children (including older sister Bette, a librarian, younger twin brothers, Syd and Dick, also noted naturalists) soaked up the enthusiasm from their mother, Jean, and dad, Steve. A professional photographer for Agriculture Canada and self-taught botanist, the elder Cannings was also involved with conservation in the Okanagan.

Conveniently, the family home was next to the Penticton First Nations’ reserve, over 18,000 hectares of grasslands and Ponderosa pine forest, a place kids could easily fall in love with insects.

“It was a marvelous place to grow up,” Cannings says, and while development there increases, he says, it’s “still a wonderful place to wander the hills and grasslands.” Today his sojourns are with his wife Joan Kerick, a retired biologist. With retirement will come more travelling, photo credit: Syd Cannings hiking, and gardening together.

He draws out a Blue-eyed Darner dragonfly from the net, explaining the correct way to handle the finger-long beast. He clamps thumb

Rob Cannings is retiring as curator of entomology at the Royal BC Museum, but his love of nature, and of dragonflies, will carry on.

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and forefinger on its wings, Cannings, a leading stilling it. The natural teacher expert on robber flies, in Cannings takes over. Of the displays specimens in a order Odonata — “toothed case. Like dragonflies, one” in Greek — a dragonfly robber flies indicate rarely bites people with its eco-system health. serrated jaw; a correct hold has more to do with protecting the insect.

Running a finger along its prickly legs, Cannings explains how in mid-flight a dragonfly cages prey with its legs, swinging the meal to its mouth, eating on the go if the meal is small, finding a perch if it’s too big. Sometimes dragonflies congregate, swarming to hunt midges, caddisflies, gnats, and mayflies, when clouds of these aquatic insects emerge.

A WALKING TREASURY OF NATURE Back in the 1970s and ’80s, when Cannings was still relatively new to Victoria, he did far more researching of species locally.

Since then, the Beckwith Park pond has changed dramatically, as have other area spots, houses sprouting where once was bush. To see dragonflies is a good sign — their presence signals a healthy ecosystem. A dragonfly-friendly pond or stream means the water quality is good enough for the aquatic stage of the insect’s life cycle and vegetation flourishes for the adult stage. Even if a pond is small, habitat is habitat; sometimes the unlikeliest places are dragonfly hotspots.

“If I had three or four hours to look for dragonflies in Victoria, I’d go to this little place called Spencer Pond,” Cannings says. “One side of it’s trashed, but you can still see all sorts of stuff.” Like the Red-veined Meadowhawk dragonfly, a relatively rare species, but occuring in enough numbers at this pond close to the unfinished Spencer Road exchange on Highway 1 that Cannings was able to describe the species’ larva for the first time in scientific literature.

Finding the hours for fieldwork conflicts with the other side of an entomologist’s job — lab work and writing. Cannings is prolific, authoring a handbook on BC dragonflies, a book on Okanagan Valley birds with his brothers, contributing to the Electronic Atlas of the Wildlife of BC and more. The University of British Columbia-trained biologist is a walking treasury of the province’s natural world. At his museum lab, his latest project sits pinned in a glass-covered wooden box: robber flies.

Cannings’ intense study of dragonflies began in the 1970s.

After a decade his interest expanded to robber flies, another hawk of the insect world, apex predators whose presence or absence also indicates ecosystem health. As the only 28

photo credit: jude isabella

entomologist studying robber flies in Canada, Cannings will continue the research in retirement as a museum associate.

The robber flies in the box, Efferia genus, are found in southern Interior grasslands. One of them Cannings described and named, Efferia okanagana. It lives in the Okanagan’s fast-disappearing antelope-brush grasslands, a special place he consistently returns to. He has roamed the province from the Tatshenshini in the far northwest to the muskeg of the Fort Nelson plains, from Rose Spit on Haida Gwaii’s northeastern Graham Island to the Flathead in the southeastern Rockies, yet his roots are firmly connected to his childhood explorations.

“When I look back, I’m sort of impressed but also slightly shocked at what my parents would allow me to do,” he says. “I could go out for the whole day all by myself, up into the mountains. I could go with a friend and we could stay overnight, camping.” Today, with urban populations making up 80 per cent of Canada’s population, and 85 per cent of BC’s, even if kids wanted to hike on their own, they’d need a driver.

“You get competent at all sorts of things when you’re left on your own,” Cannings says. “It’s a lot harder for a young kid today because you have to go further and further out to get that wild experience.”

Today, destruction of places like the Okanagan’s grasslands — some of the easiest natural habitat to develop — threatens robber flies and other creatures. For Cannings the loss is frustrating, but he remains optimistic. The boy who was so happy when family friends left milkweed with Monarch butterfly larva on his doorstep in 1960 for him to raise (and he did) is heartened today by the young, dedicated biologists he meets regularly, including a graduate student from the University of Michigan doing follow-up research on Lasiopogon, another robber fly genus that was Cannings’ PhD thesis.

“That’s part of this idea of passing on the knowledge,” he says.

“Mentoring — we’re doing much of this research together, but I think he’s going to be the next Lasiopogon expert.” VB 29

photo by gary McKinstry

by alisa gordaneer

Please, which way to

the creative zone?

Or am I already there?

NEW FALL ARRIVALS

Artists, writers and musicians can occasionally be heard, particularly after a few glasses of wine, talking about a mysterious place called the “creative zone.” It’s not a location, but rather, that magical mindset where artists go when they’re immersed in a creative project, and the paint, or the words, or the music, flows almost effortlessly. Hours pass in moments, and hopefully, great art gets made.

I was thinking about that creative zone recently because the University of Victoria is offering an interdisciplinary course about creativity — which kind of sounds like trying to grab a handful of air. But as the course’s instructor, Victoria author Madeline Sonik, points out, “when people learn how creativity functions and begin using this information methodologically, they experience perceptual changes that help them come at their work, their world, and their lives in novel and original ways.”

So, by learning about creativity, you can become more creative, and access that creative zone more successfully.

Sounds like a good place to start. You also need to have some support for being in that zone, though. Sonik suggests that not only is there a neurological component, with feel-good dopamine running in the brain, but there are other factors as well. If the environment supports creativity, if the artist is internally motivated to do the work, and they have competence in the field they’re creating in, the zone is easier to reach.

GETTING INTO THE ZONE TAKES SKILL To test the academic theory, I asked a local band of roots

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musicians how they got into the creative zone when they were recording their new album, set to be released this month. The trio of Shanti Bremer, Amanda Blied and Miriam Sonstenes call themselves The Sweet Lowdown — you may have heard them playing their traditional-music-inspired fiddle/banjo/guitar arrangements at their regular Tuesday night session at the Fernwood Inn, or at folk festivals from here to Cape Breton.

Sonstenes says the creative zone happens for the band in each performance: “Every time we step on stage and start playing, the magic is always there.” That’d be the dopamine, right? And then there’s the part where they have competence in their field: The Sweet Lowdown’s first self-titled recording was nominated for album of the year at the Vancouver Island Music Awards this past spring, and each member of the trio is a skilled musician. Check. They were also motivated: when it came time to record a second album, there was a certain amount of pressure to make it as strong as the first — and to ensure that live magic made it into the recording.

So, what about the part with the environment supporting creativity? Well, perhaps fittingly, the trio named the album Sail Away Ladies, after a traditional fiddle tune they play, then took the title seriously, and sailed away on a BC Ferry to record it over 10 days spent at a friend’s sheep farm on Mayne Island. Bremer, who plays banjo, says the recording space itself allowed the band to achieve a “really live feeling” — as though they were performing. “There’s a lightness to this album,” she says.

THE MUSE APPEARS AS YOU WORK And there must have been more dopamine, too: “You feel really free — when all you’ve been doing is playing, thinking about playing, and talking about playing,” says Bremer. “I think we laughed more than any of us had ever laughed before.”

And, as Sonstenes notes, “we never looked at our watches.”

Rather, with the help of recording engineer Adrian Dolan, they played and recorded late into the night, spending entire days in that creative zone.

It sounds idyllic, and if you’re an artist (or even if you’re not), you might be feeling some envy just hearing about it. But what if you can’t get to that kind of euphoria every time? Take heart. As some sage said, the creative muse never shows up before you get down to work, but it often shows up while you’re in the middle of it. Or, as the equally sage Sonik points out, “I don’t know if ‘the zone’ is, in fact, all that important.”

Sometimes, she explains, creating art just takes dedication. “I would say it’s far more important to be consistent, persistent, and determined in your efforts … that it’s far more important to fail many, many, many times. Some creators will never experience ‘the zone,’ but they may make long-lasting creative contributions to their societies.” VB

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MOURNING ONLINE:

Can social media ease the pain of grief for friends and family?

By CAROLYN HEIMAN

W

hen my parents died I had

the task of emptying a home holding the remnants of their 55 years of marriage. It had the usual assortment of stuff; 30-year-old magazines, gradeschool report cards, and bric-a-brac from travels and gifts from children who bought things like quirky salt and pepper shakers with the certainty that they were on the top of Mom’s must-haves.

Tucked in the back of the attic were three photo albums, bindings bursting. I had never seen these albums despite countless raucous family gatherings, where our home movies and photoalbum viewings were a rite of re-establishing bonds. Inside these mysterious albums were hundreds of sympathy cards painstakingly organized with neat black photo corners, sent from residents of the small community in which I grew up. The cards contained notes of condolences to my parents after the drowning of my brother, when he was three. As part of an

excited delegation of children tobogganing on the river bank along our property he slipped through a hole in the ice.

The cards were evidence of how a family and community shared its grief, something not that apparent to me as the subject of my THE SUBJECT OF MY brother’s death was rarely raised, BROTHER’S DEATH WAS although his bronzed ankle-top RARELY RAISED, ALTHOUGH boots sitting on top of the piano were a daily reminder of his HIS BRONZED BOOTS absence. But he clearly was never SITTING ON TOP OF THE far from my parents’ minds, as one PIANO WERE A DAILY of the last things they organized REMINDER OF HIS ABSENCE. in their elderly years was a more prominent monument on his gravesite, something my siblings and I discovered while walking the cemetery after both Mom and Dad had died.

FROM PRIVATE TO PUBLIC GRIEVING Our parents’ grief was borne quietly, shared primarily with only each other. What would it have 33

been like for them if the event that changed their lives forever had occurred in the era when many people don’t know what photo corners are and communication is increasingly virtual?

Would they find solace in this age, where messages of grief and celebrations of life are posted on Facebook for all to see?

It’s a question on my mind in connection with the death of my nephew, killed a day before his 27th birthday in a motorcycle crash, and I read with heart-breaking regularity the shared exchanges of grief and memories about him on a Facebook memorial site. When some event, like dinner at his favorite restaurant, or the sight of a bighorn ram at the roadside, triggers a memory of him, a Facebook friend tells others.

Photos of tattoos acquired in his memory are celebrated there.

Sometimes messages are directed to my lovely, funny nephew, whose physical presence on this Earth was gone in an instant.

At first this communication form was eerie. Now it is consoling and I can especially see that when my sister writes short, poignant notes to and about her deceased son on the site, that it has a role in her journey with grief.

The stages of grief haven’t changed since Elizabeth KublerRoss mapped them out as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and at last acceptance in her seminal 1969 book On Death and Dying. What has changed is that we live in a world where emotional expression is commonplace in the virtual world and the virtual world is now a forum for community grieving and celebration of a life now past.

EASING THE PAIN OF ABSENCE The virtual world has returned a sense of community to families and friends whose global mobility often separates them. Discussion can continue online beyond the day of the funeral service, when stunned stoicism often prevails.

What a gift to be able to say what slipped one’s mind at that moment! Virtual though they may be, these collective forums have a role in diminishing the loneliness that comes with the death of someone you knew and loved. My sister Millie looks to her son’s site often, finding reassurance that a larger community also mourns his absence and is reaching out to her and other family members. She admits she was initially uncertain about whether she would be comfortable with a Facebook memorial site, but had little choice in its existence, as her daughters set it up. Now she has reconnected with far-away friends, and learns more about her adult son from photos, videos and stories. “As parents we often neglect to take pictures of our adult children and we lack those visual memories. But the kids are taking pictures of each other.

These have been shared and I’m grateful for them,” she says.

Researcher and clinical psychologist Therese Rando, who has written a number of books on grief, might number this as one of her six stages. which she labels as “recollect and re-experience.” During this stage mourners spend time — important to their journey — reviewing memories of their lost relationship.

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ONLINE GUEST BOOKS AND BLOGS CAN HELP Facebook is not the only online forum for celebrating lives and sending condolences. For years, newspapers have extended their obituary service to include an online guest book, although contributions tend to be one per individual and one-way, as opposed to Facebook, where a conversation takes shape over time and through small events and memories.

Online blogs, offering peer-to-peer support, are also easy to find. Participants start as strangers but they find a bond through their shared experience.

Marnie Thompson, a bereavement counsellor with Victoria Hospice, often refers people to recommended sites — in particular blog sites — where mourners can connect. A favourite of hers is griefnet.org because of the range of circumstances it covers. The site has 50 email grief support groups, including grandparents who’ve lost grandchildren, gay widowers, and groups for children. “A real connection is being created among people who have losses,” says Thompson.

At the drop-in group she organizes weekly, almost all participants, regardless of age, have social media experiences related to the death of a loved one. Many are positive, although sometimes people find it unnerving to have random notifications related to a deceased person pop into their email.

SEPARATING GOOD FROM BAD In the early stages of bereavement Thompson believes the online forums are a particularly positive avenue for the

“ritualization of mourning,” something that is lacking for many.

Rando agrees, seeing ritualization and the permission to talk about the dead person as a critical piece for dealing with pain.

Other research suggests that social media play a role whenever opportunities are limited to talk openly about death, especially when the death was of a traumatic or questionable nature.

Nonetheless, Thompson also notes that the role of social media around death and bereavement is growing at a rate faster than expert understanding. “None of us have any real grasp or comprehension of how to use it and what is good about it and what might be harmful. We need to learn more about that,” she says.

The need for that understanding was unimaginable decades ago when my brother drowned and meaningful social connections typically stayed within geographic boundaries.

With those boundaries gone, and connections now made with a click of the mouse, new possibilities around age-old life struggles are revealing themselves.

NOTE: Death is raising corporate challenges for social media including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on how to proceed when one of its users can no longer log on. Policies and procedures vary but in the case of Facebook, family and friends can memorialize a deceased person’s account. To do this, proof of death must be included on a special form. If it isn’t done, Facebook will reach out on behalf of the deceased person with one of its automated replies saying that you haven’t been in touch for awhile. VB

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a Cowichan couple builds an organic empire By susan down photography by dean azim

Sebastien Martin and Catherine Wedderspoon Martin, here with Charlotte, 2, have built a thriving business distributing organic products from their Cowichan farm.

36

COWICHAN

S

ebastien Martin points out the two stunted manuka shrubs growing on his sloping, five-hectare farm in the Cowichan Valley. Around us, the hillside is a lavender haze of blooms. Nearby, a flock of happily scratching chickens produces eggs sold to local grocers. But it’s the manuka bushes that symbolize success for Sebastien and his wife, Catherine Wedderspoon Martin.

Native to New Zealand and better

known as the tea tree, manuka has been found to have antibacterial and healing properties. In 2005, through their company, Wedderspoon Organic Inc., the Martins started importing manuka honey, a product that was virtually unknown in Canada. Attempts to grow their own manuka trees were unsuccessful, and they were left with just the two survivors out of 30,000 seedlings. So instead they have grown the business. The manuka shrubs are an

amusing footnote to the bigger story of how a Cowichan couple built a company that now distributes organic face creams and manuka-based products worldwide.

The company headquarters, at the top of the farm’s hill, are also the office for the company’s nine employees. It’s a pleasantly fragrant warehouse, more distribution hive than manufacturing area.

Bars of organic honey soap (made by a Victoria artisan) sit curing on shelves.

There are bottles of hydrosol (herbal Organic lavender from the farm will find its way into future Wedderspoon products. Bars of manuka soap dry on a shelf. Manuka and beeswax candles are made on the farm from big blocks of beeswax that arrive regularly.

37

The success of their business has enabled the couple to build a new home on their farm. Catherine and Sebastien are seen here with Charlotte. They are expecting their second child in 2013.

distillates) made from yarrow and lavender as well as racks of lavender and boxes of calendula petals. Nearby, an employee crafts manuka candles.

BOTTLED HONEY, CREAMS, BALMS In the storage area, boxes of manuka honey lozenges are stacked high against the wall. Relatively empty now, the building each month stores a shipping container full of products, from bottled honey to creams and lip balms. Prices range from $4 for lip balm to $30 for topline honey and $70 for anti-wrinkle cream.

In the company’s first year the couple surpassed their own estimates and made $70,000 on the imported honey. This year, they expect to make $4 million in sales in Canada alone, double the sales of last year, says Martin. Ten per cent of the sales are through their websites, wedderspoon. ca and wedderspoon.com. Worldwide sales of the products, available in 27 countries, will reach $9 million this year, Martin estimates. A UK subsidiary has just had a request from Harrods department store to carry the products. Queen of the Hive, an anti-wrinkle facial cream they launched in May, features a mix of bee venom, organic manuka honey and natural botanicals and now accounts for 20 per cent of their sales. Kelowna-based Nature’s Formula Laboratories produces it for Wedderspoon, using bee venom from the United States and manuka honey from New Zealand.

The idea for the business began when British-born Catherine, 37, a graphic artist, and French-born Sebastien, 35, a marketer, were working in Quebec. During a visit, Sebastien’s French mother ran out of the manuka honey she ate daily. They scoured Montreal health food stores unsuccessfully.

During a trip to the States, they couldn’t find it there, either.

Friends told them importing the special honey was a business opportunity, but they forgot about it while they made plans to move to BC. Their aging Westfalia van broke down in the Cowichan Valley,

Raising chickens and growing fresh strawberries make life on the Cowichan farm all the more idyllic and reminds Sebastien of his Dordogne roots.

delaying them just long enough for them to realize that the region felt like home.

Memorable, DISTINCTIVE NAME Soon after arriving, Catherine entered a government-sponsored educational program to assist new entrepreneurs.

She had to come up with a business idea and importing manuka honey seemed perfect, especially in a region replete with health food stores. The course provided a good business foundation, but one piece of advice they rejected: other students suggested a more common name than Wedderspoon (Catherine’s family name). Now the distinctive name seems inspired, and Catherine’s logo, a pink lotus against a black background, appears on shelves in thousands of stores across Canada.

Sebastien is the strategist, always looking for trends, while Catherine is the more conservative planner. Their daughter Charlotte is two and they are

expecting their second child soon.

Before importing, they spent six months visiting New Zealand honey producers. Then they sold the honey at farmers’ markets before approaching organic food chains such as Whole Foods, which encouraged them to expand their product line. A year later they won a Black Tie Award for business excellence from the Duncan-Cowichan Chamber of Commerce.

CHALLENGES ALONG THE WAY The Martins have faced some challenges on the way to success, including the 30,000 failed manuka seedlings. Since distributors at first weren’t interested in carrying the products, the couple developed their own network of health food stores. “Nobody believed we would make money with this brand,” said Sebastien. “Now health food stores are coming to us.”

Wedderspoon pursued certified organic requirements and as a result, the

company has been the leader in raw, organic manuka honey. Some other importers have mixed in inferior honey.

Sebastien worked with the New Zealand government to clarify organic regulations.

While the organic food market is small —about two per cent of the total food retail — it is growing from a niche sector to more mainstream fare. Last year, Canada’s domestic standard for certifying organic products was recognized by both the EU and the United States, making it the first time one country’s standards have been accepted by others and saving farmers and exporters the expense and hassle of certifying both domestically and internationally.

Meanwhile, at the end of the long farm driveway, the Martins proudly display their certified organic sign. They plan a range of products using their own herbs as they diversify the business.

While they are moving beyond the honey that started it all, success is still sweet. VB 39

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SOCIAL CAPITAL

Craving a cultural experience

along with fabulous world food? read on …

By ADRIEN SALA

Peppered throughout our city are economical, delicious dining options that not only satisfy foodie cravings, but also provide education about different cultures here. Dinners and lunches at cultural centres are a great way to try traditional food and meet new people. And they’re often run by non-profit organizations that help support community groups. Here’s a sprinkling of such offerings, plus a couple of other ways to connect culturally over good food.

Ukrainian Canadian Cultural Society of Vancouver Island Possibly the most well-known cultural food night in town, the Ukrainian feast here on the last Friday every month is a spectacle to behold. In just three hours between 5 and 8 pm, upwards of 450 people stream into the grand hall at 3277 Douglas St. and sit, festively squished at long tables. A bustling atmosphere with live music from the Gypsy Rovers, friendly perogy-pushing babas, beer and borscht all help support great causes, as each food night is a fundraiser for a different community group. The combo plate of homemade perogies, kielbasa (garlic sausage), cabbage rolls and salad goes for $13. Borscht is $2.50. Ukrainian beer is $5 for a 500-ml bottle, and frozen perogies and cabbage rolls are available to take home, too. The annual Christmas feast is on Jan. 5 (tickets needed). Get there early and bring an appetite. Cash only. Call 250475-2585 or visit uccvi.com.

German Canadian Cultural Society Founded in 1970, the Edelweiss Club at 108 Niagara St. now boasts a diverse member base of both Germans and non-Germans. During a recent schnitzel night, my girlfriend and I sat with a French-Canadian man who had spent many years in Germany, and his partner, a Nicaraguan woman, who also lived there for a few years. We enjoyed schnitzel with mashed potatoes and gravy, two kinds of sauerkraut (purple and white) and a bun ($14).

There’s Warsteiner on tap ($6), Steigel in a can ($5), and live accordion played in front of the wall-length mural of the German Alps. Dessert is free for members, but if you still have stomach space to spare (unlikely), you can buy it for $3.75. Service starts at 5:30 pm sharp on the first Thursday of every month. Reservations recommended. See victoriaedelweiss.ca or call 250-380-9158.

Jewish Community Centre The cleverly named Lox, Stock & Bagel deli inside the Jewish Community Centre at 3636 Shelbourne St. is a perfect fit for anyone craving some grandmothering with lunch. Run by volunteers who are mostly in their 60s and 70s, this popular, non-profit community centre offers traditional Jewish family fare like cheese blintzes (warm crepes stuffed with cottage cheese, $8), matzo ball soup (vegetable soup with unleavened dumplings, $5) and kugel (a noodle dish not totally unlike macaroni and cheese, $6).

The deli’s menu includes gigantic hot pastrami sandwiches and a “Nosher’s” plate (a sampler of several items), both $10, as well as a long list of other treats. Just try to keep room for the “Better Than Sex” chocolate cake and ice cream. Open Tuesday to Friday, 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. Licensed. Cash only. No tax. See jccvictoria.ca or call 250-477-7185.

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Philippine Bayanihan Community Centre This volunteer-supported community centre at 1709 Blanshard St. is operated by the Victoria Filipino Canadian Association and provides services to both seniors and community caregivers. The VFCA hosts an open house every Sunday between 11:30 am and 2 pm at the centre.

The menu depends on whoever is the volunteer chef but is always made up of delicious, homemade traditional food like chicken adobo (chicken legs marinated in vinegar and soy sauce), daing na bangus (crispy white fish) and turon (deep-fried bananas). “We go until the food is done!” says the association’s president, Sid Emmanuel. A two-main plate is $7. Cash only. Email bayanihan@shaw.ca or call 250-472-1898.

Pizza Prima Strada Hosted on the last Thursday of every month at Pizza Prima Strada’s Bridge Street location, the Long Table Dinner Series’ meals are each themed on a different region of Italy.

“They’re informative, but not too focused on information,” explains host Andrew Johnson, who says that they’re designed to be like an Italian family dinner with platters of food shared among the 20 people who attend. Ranging between $50 and $65 (plus HST and gratuity), the meals

include four courses and three wine pairings. “There will be things like sautéed spinach and pecorino, roast whitefish in marinara and saffron pasta with spicy sausage for the Sardegna night.” Reservations are a must and can be made online through the events page. While there, take a look at the Italian speaking night — a lighter option with an opportunity to mangiare mentre si parla Italiano! See pizzeriaprimastrada.com or call 250-590-4388.

Cook Culture For anyone looking for a more hands-on cultural food experience, Cook Culture at 1317 Blanshard St. provides several ethnic cooking classes in its test kitchen. With regular evening events ranging from traditional sushi instruction with Akemi Akutsu to chaat and kebab with CBC Radio One’s Khalil Akhtar, the three-hour classes cost $85 per person, which includes all food and instruction.

Dwanye MacIsaac has several Arabian Nights coming up this fall and Akhtar is planning an Indian Christmas feast in December. A full calendar of events can be found on the website. Be advised: “Classes can book up to a month in advance,” says owner, Jed Grieve. See cookculture.com or call 250-590-8161. VB

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FRONT ROW

The popular and athletic Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal appears November 16 and 17 at the Royal Theatre

November by robert moyes

44

FROM MONTREAL, WITH PASSION Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal pioneered the fusing of ballet’s technical precision with the loose-hipped physicality central to jazz dance. Their approach created an instant sensation in the early 1970s: aside from touring internationally they eventually had five schools and 3,000 students throughout Quebec. Always popular, the company took a jump forward in 1998, when famed dancer Louis Robitaille became artistic director. Although Robitaille is strongly committed to classic ballet and demands that his dancers have perfect technique, he also expects them to perform with breakneck speed and daring athleticism. “Robitaille is interested in the esthetics of dancing more than doing ‘message’ pieces,” explains Stephen White, producer for Dance Victoria. BJM is touring an ambitious program in celebration of its 40th anniversary. One of the key pieces is Harry, a 40-minute work by IsraeliAmerican choreographer Barak Marshall, scored with klezmer music and folk songs.

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Gallery Walk

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Theatre Inconnu’s Kafka the Musical

Nov. 30-Dec. 15 Theatre Inconnu

saturday, december 15, 8 pm Royal Theatre “Marshall’s work is gritty and textured and has a lot of heart,” says White. Next up, Vancouver’s Wen Wei Wang’s Night Box is a physical and sensuous work inspired by Montreal’s vibrant nightlife. “It’s gorgeous and sexy — this is Wang’s best choreography in the last five years,” White adds. Rounding out the program is Zero In On, a pas de deux by Spain’s Cayetano Soto that uses classical ballet composition expressed via a contemporary dance vocabulary. BJM were last here five years ago and, says White: “they were one of the few companies I know to get a standing ovation at intermission.”

Appearing Nov. 16 and 17, 7:30 pm, at the Royal Theatre. For tickets, call 250-386-6121.

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Left: Michael Pittman’s Holy Fire (black smoke), 26 x 25", mixed media on panel.

Right: Cheryl Tave’s The Gift; 46 x 34”, mixed media on mylar.

 ART ON THE MOVE This is the 15th year for Gallery Walk, the popular afternoon-into-evening “art stroll,” where people can visit seven downtown galleries, listen to live music, grab some nibblies and a cup of hot cider, and admire what’s on the walls. “There didn’t used to be such a keen awareness of art galleries in the downtown, so five of us got together and modeled an event that had been

very successful in Edmonton,” explains Alcheringa Gallery’s Elaine Monds, a cofounder of the walk. “Years ago, art was seen as a frill,” she notes. “These days, people are a lot more knowledgeable and there is an understanding that art can enhance or even change your life.” The participating galleries (Madrona, Legacy, West End, Alcheringa, View, and both downtown Winchesters) are repeating a

popular program from last year, when walk participants got their “passport” stamped at each site. Those with a stamp from every gallery are eligible to win one of seven pieces of art worth up to $300. “This has become one of those annual events that people really look forward to,” says Monds.

November 29, 3-8 pm, at participating downtown galleries.

KAFKA FALLS IN LOVE  After hearing a BBC podcast of an unusual radio play called Kafka the Musical, Theatre Inconnu’s founder and artistic director, Clayton Jevne, was hooked. The author was Britain’s Murray Gold, a multiple award-winner most famous for composing the music for the TV show Dr. Who but who also has had four plays produced in London’s West End. Jevne wrote Gold asking for permission to stage Kafka as live theatre, little expecting to hear back. But soon Jevne found himself meeting Gold in Manhattan, when Jevne was presenting his Moscow Stations there. Gold must have liked the play — and Jevne — because he agreed to rewrite Kafka and customize it for Inconnu’s tiny performance space. “I’m really excited about this play,” declares Jevne. “It’s very funny, moving, and dramatic.” In it the anguished existentialist is approached by a famous producer to star in a musical based upon his own life. The fact that Kafka can neither sing nor act is not regarded as a problem. “The play is really looking at the world from Kafka’s point of view as he’s losing his grip on reality,” says Jevne. “It’s also a poignant love story.”

Appearing at Theatre Inconnu, 1923 Fernwood Rd., Nov. 30 to Dec. 15. For tickets, call 250-590-6291.

Award-winning composer and playwright Murray Gold adapted his radio play about Kafka for Theatre Inconnu’s world premiere. Photo: Phil Watkins.

47

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Tafelmusik baroque orchestra Jeanne Lamon director (Toronto) The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres SAT ur dAy, 15 dECEmbEr 2012

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 GUITARS A GO-GO The audience has been growing steadily over the past several years, and International Guitar Night is now a mustsee annual event for Victorians wanting to hear a diverse array of acoustic guitar virtuosity in a collaborative setting.

Started nearly two decades ago by Californian six-stringer Brian Gore, IGN features a quartet of guitarists that changes every year, drawing amazing and often little-seen performers from Europe, Africa, and South America. Joining Gore this year will be Martin Taylor, a legendary finger-picking maestro who used to play with Stephane Grappelli and Chet Atkins.

Sharing the stage will be Madagascar’s Solorazaf, an amazing performer who blends his guitar and voice into a lyrical river of sound. He should have lots in common with Brazil’s Guinga, a versatile and technically superlative musician who is also considered his country’s most innovative songwriter. The first time professional musician Rod McCrimmon saw the IGN tour a number of years ago, fewer than 50 people were in a small hall in Saanich. Last year several hundred came out to UVic. The show’s relaxed format, which includes solo performances as well as duets, trios, and quartets, makes for a unique evening of great music. “There’s nothing else like the IGN tour,” McCrimmon says. “We’re really lucky to get them.”

Appearing Nov. 4, 8 pm, at UVic’s Farquhar Auditorium. For tickets, call 250-721-8480.

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 THE ART OF WAR (AND PEACE)

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It’s a grim honour roll that includes important Canadian artists such as Arthur Lismer and Alex Colville. They, and many others who were sailors first and artists second, were selected to paint images of the Canadian Navy, both at war and in more private moments. These emotionally rich works are featured in The Navy: A Century in Art, a touring exhibition put together by the Canadian War Museum to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Canadian Navy.

“These are powerful, worrying images ... at least as intense as any photograph,” says Tim Willis, director of exhibitions at the Royal BC Museum. The naval base at Esquimalt is featured in two of the 46 paintings, which span from the First World War to the present day and include terrifying scenes of the Battle of the Atlantic alongside more personal images such as a sailor getting a tattoo and other prosaic moments captured onboard or ashore. “Many of the canvases are heroic and iconic,” adds Willis. “It’s fascinating to think that they were painted on the decks of these ships, by men who were there and caught up in the moment.”

Running from Nov. 5 to Jan. 27 at the RBCM. For information, see royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.

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A trio of Navy scenes, part of 46 images on show at the Royal BC Museum. Images courtesy of the Beaverbrook Collection of War Art at the Canadian War Museum.

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Texas alt-country singer-songwriter BettySoo appears with

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 ALT-COUNTRY WITH A TWIST Austin-based singer-songwriter BettySoo stands out amidst the crowd of alt-country musicians in Texas’ most musical city — credit her Korean heritage as much as an unusually beautiful voice of bell-like purity. BettySoo grew up in Texas listening to Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffith; even so, it was still surprising when, at age 26, she dropped out of grad school and blew off a well-paying day job to become an aspiring songwriter. It may have been a crazy dream, but six years — and six CDs — later, BettySoo is a multi-award winner who performs widely at festivals across North America and Europe. Her achingly pure country-folk soprano has been featured at the past two Vancouver Island MusicFests, and she’s coming to Victoria as part of a small tour of BC and Alberta. BettySoo is performing as a duo with Courtenaybased dobro master Doug Cox, with whom she recorded her last two CDs. “We met teaching at the Acoustic Alaska music camp two years ago and really hit it off,” says Cox. A slide virtuoso on various string instruments, Cox had a dobro custom made to be more subdued so that it would better accompany vocals. “When I play with BettySoo it’s not about laying out flashy licks like with a bluegrass solo — the dobro acts as a subtle counter-voice to her singing,” Cox explains.

“It becomes like a vocal duet, and what I play on dobro is really about moving the song’s story along.”

Appearing Nov. 17, 8 pm, at the Victoria Event Centre, 1415 Broad St. For information, see threesixtyentertainment.ca.

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*

we also

recommend the following

DimensionS: Carron Berkes and Toni Micol exhibit their paintings. October 26 - November 21, Goward House, 250-477-4401, gowardhouse.com.

PATSY CLINE: Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre brings us a show that’s a little bit country, following Patsy Cline’s journey from Virginia to Carnegie Hall. October 30 to November 10, McPherson Playhouse, rmts.bc.ca.

CHRISTMAS FLORAL FANTASY: Festive Holiday Homes is the theme of the Victoria Flower Arrangers Guild show.

November 2 and 3, 10 am to 5 pm, Cadboro Bay United Church, 250-655-1524.

Two Early music shows: Music by and for Italian nuns can be heard November 3, 8 pm, Alix Goolden Hall. Then later in the month Tafelmusik, Toronto’s internationally acclaimed Baroque orchestra, presents The Galileo Project, a multimedia celebration of Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel performed alongside high-def Hubble telescope images. November 24, 8 pm, Alix Goolden Hall; earlymusicsocietyoftheislands.ca.

the Symphony for Saint-Saëns’ Second Piano Concerto.

November 12, 8 pm, Royal Theatre, rmts.bc.ca.

BEATLESHOW: This multimedia theatrical production arrives via Las Vegas’ Planet Hollywood, where it has been running for the past 10 years. It’s time to twist and shout! November 15, 7:30 pm, McPherson Playhouse, rmts.bc.ca.

LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN: “I can resist anything but temptation,” says a glittering social butterfly in Oscar Wilde’s incomparably witty comedy classic. Sure to please audiences of all ages. November 21 to December 8, Langham Court Theatre, 250-384-2142, langhamtheatre.ca.

GYPPESW YK: THE STORY OF A HOUSE: Dr. Robert Taylor, Professor Emeritus of Brock University, will talk about the history of the house that became the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and his new book on the house. November 22, 7:30 pm, James Bay New Horizons Hall, 234 Menzies Street, victoriahistoricalsociety.bc.ca.

DIWALI CULTURAL SHOW 2012: A showcase of Indian Bollywood, South Indian and classical dances, bhangra, Hindi and Punjabi songs, as well as other musical entertainment. November 10, 7 pm, UVic’s Farquhar Auditorium, victoriahindutemple.com.

Listen to your heart: CD launch and performance in memory of the late Tony Westlake. Pianist Mischa Piatigorsky, drummer Chris Wabich and bassist Neil Swainson, of Sketchy Black Dog, come from NY, LA and TO to honour Westlake and play his compositions. November 10 and 11, 7 pm, Hermann's Jazz Club, 250-388-9166, hermannsjazz.com

SAINT-SAËNS PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2: Conductor Igor Budinstein will lead the Victoria Symphony in Schubert’s Sixth Symphony, and pianist Shoko Inoue will debut with

Visit our website, victoriaboulevard.com, to submit event details online. Listings for the December issue must be received by November 9 to be considered for inclusion.

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For the love of cooking.

™

450 Burnside Road E., Victoria 250-385-1123 Providing expertise in sales and service for Jenn-Air, Maytag, Amana and KitchenAid.

Dallas Sells Victoria/Oak Bay PERSONAL REAL ESTATE CORPORATION

“My goal is to find your dream home and ensure that the decision you make stands as a wise investment over the long term.”

OAK BAY WATERFRONT Two extraordinary waterfront properties for re-development or renovation. Prime location of .33 acre & .25 acre properties may be purchased separately or together. Several tenanted suites in each house. $1,445,000 & $2,091,000

BROADMEAD FAMILY HOME Bright & spacious open layout with some city & mountain views. 4 bedrooms, master on main level, lower level easily suited.

Close to great schools, buses & shopping. $748,000

GRADUATION PLACE This beautiful 2002 built stand-alone townhome has 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a private south facing patio and yard. 18 foot ceiling in living room with fireplace. Walk to UVIC. $675,000

MOUNT DOUG The fabulous open floor plan is great for entertaining. Heated tile floors in kitchen, bathrooms & entrance. Kitchen features granite & quartz counters, s/s appliances, & gas range. Deck with hot tub has absolute privacy overlooking Feltham Park. Mortgage helper downstairs. $868,000

VIEW ROYAL WATERFRONT! Architecturally stunning 4 bedroom home with soaring windows in the Great Room, fabulous deck overlooking the water, granite kitchen. 100’ frontage on Portage Inlet. This 2009 home has a legal suite too! $879,000

OAK BAY Lovely 3 bedroom home with updated bathroom & kitchen. Private & secluded south facing back yard & sunny back deck.

Oak floors in 2008, guest bedroom w/ sitting room downstairs. Close to UVIC, great schools & rec centre. $739,800

Dallas Chapple RE/MAX Camosun • Tel: 250.744.3301 • Toll Free: 1.877.652.4880 www.dallaschapple.com • Email: dallas@dallaschapple.com

STUNNING OCEANFRONT. 2.3 acre, 7302 sq. ft. home custom built. Soaring ceilings, marble, hardwood floors. 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, kitchen with eating island, pantry, 6 burner stove and granite countertops. Spa-like ensuite baths.

Studio suite. Balcony with spectacular view. Close to golf. 425 La Fortune Rd. $2,675,000

SUPERB PARKER AVE. WATERFRONT. 3000 sq. ft., recently refurbished Pamela Charlesworth home. Brazilian hardwood floors, soaring vaulted ceilings, & Ocean views.

New kitchen. 4 bdr, master with commanding views.

Private .33 acre lot with patio hot tub. Dbl car garage.

5255 Parker Ave., Cordova Bay $1,898,000

10 MILE POINT WATERFRONT LOT. Build your home on exceptional waterfront. Gorgeous 60 X 150 gently sloping lot with sweeping views of Cadboro Bay and Royal Victoria Yacht Club. Stroll to village shops in minutes. Situated in an area of fine homes.

2713 Sea View Rd. $1,495,000

ELEGANT COUNTRY LIVING WITH OCEAN VIEWS. Custom built (2005) home .65 acre property. Panorama views. Open concept, large kitchen. South-facing patio & gardens. Primarily one-level living, master bdr on main with luxury ensuite and 2 home offices. Legal suite with W/D above triple car garage. 2155 Newman Rd. $1,495,000

FEELS LIKE A MALIBU BEACHFRONT LIFESTYLE HOME! Ocean & Mt. Baker views from this 5100 sq. ft. custom home. Ocean side patio, with Gas fire pit, miles of sandy beach. Quiet lane, with intercom controlled entry. 10’ ceilings. Gourmet kitchen, 2 dishwashers, 2 fridges. 3 Ens bedrooms. 5185 Agate Lane, Cordova Bay $2,885,000

UPLANDS CHARACTER HOME. 6100 sq. ft. residence beautifully updated. 6 bdr (master with F.P.), 4 baths.

Bright kitchen with granite countertops and stainless appliances, formal living room with F.P., conservatory, games room, secluded garden with hot tub. Nanny area and double garage. 3380 Upper Tce. $1,790,000

HOME WITH LAKE VIEW. Situated 14 min. to downtown, this 4.99 South facing acreage has views to Elk Lake and the Olympic Mts. 5983 sq. ft., sunny and bright. Granite counter tops, 6 burner Gas stove, plus Sub Zero fridge.

1000 sq. ft. balcony. Master on the main, spacious office, plus 2 bdr in-law suite. 5640 Batu Rd. $1,775,000

OCEANFRONT CONDO. 2000 sq. ft. waterfront, steel & concrete building. One owner since 1990! Exceptional pond and waterfall adjoining the patio. 2 bdr plus office, living room with gas F.P. Private garage plus secure 2nd underground spot. Stroll to town in minutes & enjoy a great lifestyle. #100 636 Montreal St. $628,000

LISA WILLIAMS W EXCLUSIVE 5 AC WATERFRONT ESTATE, unlike anything else in Victoria! Offered for sale for the first time, this totally private, world-class property boasts a 8900 sq.ft. main house, 5 car garage, separate guest house, pool cabana and tennis court; your own personal country club! Completely renovated over a 3 year period, the home boasts top of the line custom finishing and all the luxurious extras you would expect, with incredible views, 7700 sq.ft. of patio space, expansive lawns, private beach access & more! $11,498,000

SPECTACULAR & LUXURIOUS NEW 10 Mile Point home w/boathouse! Over 7700 sq.ft. on stunning, S/W facing .79 acre property in exclusive setting w/hi-ceilings, HW & travertine flrs, huge windows, elevator, & incredible ocean views! Gourmet kitchen opens to gorgeous breakfast area w/access to expansive patios & dining terrace! Elegant dining & living areas plus main floor family rm, office & music rm! Self-contained guest suite, huge games rm, 5th bedrm or office & tons of storage too . . . $4,498,000

VILLA MADRONA a magnificent, 2 acre, gated estate with gracious 11,000 sq.ft. main residence, sports court, separate games/entertainment area, incredible swimming pool & home theatre, 9-car parking garage/carport, PLUS a separate 3461 sq.ft. renovated waterfront home & property w/separate title. Incredible views, custom finishing, imported fixtures and furnishings, expansive patios, boathouse & so much more . . . a world-class estate! $9,985,000

SUNNY ‘TUSCAN’ GATED ESTATE on a spectacular S/W facing, 2 acre property just 15 mins from downtown on exclusive ‘Tuscan Lane’! Stunning & luxurious custom 3+ bedrm, 5 bath villa w/incredible design & detailing, & elegant finishing throughout every aspect! Enjoy sun all day and lots of privacy, gorgeous salt-water pool, hot tub, heated outdoor dining terrace, professionally landscaped grounds, tons of parking and an unbelievable Italian feel! $2,448,000

SPECTACULAR UPLANDS OCEANFRONT ESTATE! Stunning 6,502 sq.ft. home on a south-facing .90 acre property boasting world-class views from all main rooms! Enjoy luxurious living & exceptional privacy from this 5-6 bedrm home with gorgeous main level master suite, high ceilings, HW flrs, gourmet kitchen, beautiful office suite, wine cellar, exercise rm, media/games rooms and so much more! $4,980,000

STUNNING ROCKLAND ESTATE on a quiet cul-de-sac with a grand 6-7 bedrm, 7092 sq.ft. residence currently used as a exclusive B&B, but equally perfect as a gorgeous family home! Beautifully upgraded with gorgeous HW flrs, tons of character, fabulous bedrms w/ensuite baths, elegant living & dining rms, library, sunroom, office spaces & tons of options! Fantastic, private grounds . . . just minutes from downtown! $2,698,000

STUNNING NEW CUSTOM home boasts incredible luxury throughout & top quality finishing & appliances! Award-winning Terry Johal Developments has just completed this gorgeous home, with so many extras incl. HW flrs with radiant heat, 9’-10’ ceilings, amazing gourmet kitchen, luxurious MAIN FLOOR MASTER suite w/spa ensuite bathrm, den/office, media rm and a beautiful fully self-contained suite too! Walk to UVic, great schools & the beach; Cadboro Bay and all amenities just mins away! $1,498,000

STEPS TO OAK BAY VILLAGE! This spacious Oak Bay home boasts 4 bedrms, 4 baths & an incredible location . . . everything at your fingertips: restaurants, shops, banking, pharmacy & more! A short walk to the beach, marina & Glenlyon-Norfolk School, and close to Oak Bay High & Oak Bay Rec Centre too . . . Extensive upgrades in the last 6 months to kitchen & baths include granite counters, heated tile flooring, new showers, new vanities & reglazed skylights . . . super main level family rm, spacious formal living/dining rms & oversized bedrms. Priced $68,000 UNDER assessed value at $925,000

CHIC URBAN OASIS with a real wow factor! This spacious 1570 sq.ft. 3 bedrm unit is comprised of the top 2 floors of a secure, Heritage building, boasting 20’ brick walls, massive windows, cool finishing and lots of great features . . . right in the heart of vibrant downtown Victoria! Private deck, newer appliances incl W/D, airconditioning, good storage & bonus rooftop access too! $424,000

c: 250•514•1966 t: 250.380.3933 ext 617 f: 250.380.3939 lisa.williams@shaw.ca www.LisaWilliams.ca

L I K E N O OT H E R sothebysrealty.ca

Independently Owned and Operated

HOT PROPERTIES

by carolyn heiman photography by leanna rathkelly

L

et there be light. That was top of mind when Lynda Smythe started building on a north-facing piece of densely wooded waterfront.

Smythe bought the Mayne Island property 12 years ago during one of her many sojourns out West from fourseason Ottawa, where she worked while dreaming of what she might create for the property.

“People did caution me about building in this direction,” she says, while sitting in her living room that is warmly lit from natural light coming from every direction.

But those cautions proved irrelevant once Irving Pitcher Architects were brought on board. After numerous visits to the fairly narrow property with rugged edges, Jim Pitcher and Bob Irving came up with a proposal to snuggle the home into the hillside and towards the roadside in a manner that would “keep its nose from going too far out into the landscape” while taking advantage of 180-degree views available once trees were carefully identified with ribbons for removal.

The home naturally takes advantage of morning sunrises, spectacular vistas with Mount Baker in the background, and offers Smythe a burning ember glow in the sky as the sun sets behind a land mass.

56

The paved patio arching along the edge of a steep dropoff on the property adds additional living space to the home.

57



WINDOW PLACEMENT

extends

In addition almost every room has windows facing in more than one direction. This care taken to “share light” from all directions has proved to be particularly crucial in how the space feels. In almost every room reflective light from multiple directions plays on the warm wood trim and creamy walls. For example, tall windows on a second-floor landing beam in southern light that meets playfully in the living room, which has light coming from the waterfrontfacing glass. From the west, light from the kitchen door also intersects. In 58

LIGHT the master bathroom the windows angle around a corner, again bringing natural light in two directions.

“This house is never dark,” Smythe says. “The light works beautifully ...

Bob and Jim got it right. It feels like a home, not a showpiece. I feel very comfortable here.”

Smythe also wanted a high ceiling height in the living room so Pitcher proposed exposed trusses, as he and his partner like the way they introduced the “characteristic of traditional Arts and Crafts architecture: the use of handcrafted local materials,

especially wood.” In this case the trusses came from Cobble Hill’s MacDonald and Lawrence Timber Framing, a company that has done work for Windsor Castle and is locally known for being instrumental in restoring the Kinsol Trestle.

Smythe, who spent her career years in museums surrounded by interesting objects displayed to maximize viewer appeal, couldn’t be happier with the structural canvas that enabled her to use her innate design sense to create a home that is comfortable — even serene — and graceful at the same time.



 “Crisp” best defines

hearth, bringing both an

the kitchen with modern

earthiness and warmth

conveniences and a

into the livingroom.

creating a substantial

Almost all the home's

and pleasing look.

and Crafts-style built-ins

building materials

Spacing them well apart

provide functionaility and

and furnishings were

provides “breathing

sourced locally from

room” and gives the

sandstone was used to

Gulf Island or Victoria

ceiling the appearance

create a floor-to-ceiling

suppliers.

of being open and airy.

traditional air.

esthetics.



Arts

 Salt Spring

 Exposed timber

trusses are oversized,





59



60



 Calming colours

out in fresh white,

combine with antique

making it feel both

pine pieces brought

cosy and clean.

from Eastern Canada.

 Island gardening

 The tongue-and-

is best done on the

groove ceiling in

patio if marauding

the attic-cove guest

deer are to be

bedroom is painted

thwarted.

A COMBINATION

of

CLEAN AND COSY

Other than the much-valued professional assistance in choosing the right shade of creamy wall colour (Benjamin Moore Rich Cream) that wouldn’t pick up the green reflection from the forested grounds, Smythe relied on her own sense of style to decorate.

“I’ve always had an undernourished artistic sense, but it hasn’t been put to the test.” Now retired, she’s exploring that bent, mostly in photography, where nine blue ribbons at the fall fair were validation she has a special touch that only needs a bit of feeding.

One can see it in her home as well and Irving, who has a trained critical eye, comments that he enjoys visiting to see new objects that Smythe has put into the space. They reflect her love of the West Coast and occasional longing for the East, where she still has many friends. Moving too many things from Ottawa wasn’t practical but the well-chosen antique pine pieces in the bedroom offer familiar comfort and create pleasing eclecticism.



61





 A north-facing view

over Campbell Bay is presented to its best advantage through

careful site selection.

 The big, easy, almost

cottage lifestyle is one of the alluring draws to fulltime island living.

62

 ProfessionalS, Suppliers and Trades: Architect: Irving Pitcher Architects, Mayne Island;

General Contractor/Builder: Aaron Somerville, Mayne Island; Interior Designer: Linda Hutchinson, Design One Stevens, Victoria; Cabinetry: Sean Luttmer, Galiano Island; Trusses: MacDonald and Lawrence Timber Framing, Cobble Hill. Millwork, fences: Jon Sanders, Mayne Island; Alder flooring: Doug McNeil, Mayne Island; Windows: Loewen Windows; Hardware:

The Grass Greener . . .

Victoria Speciality Hardware, Victoria; Lighting: Mclaren Lighting, Victoria and Restoration Hardware, Vancouver; Ceramic tiles: Gazzola Tile and Design, Victoria; Appliances: Sears Home Store, Victoria; Landscaping: Ardent Landscaping, Victoria.

While the Irving and Pitcher firm boasts bigger-budget projects, Smythe’s 2,400-square-foot home is one they like more and more each time they return, proof that it meets the first requirement Smythe had in her design desires. In thinking about moving to the West Coast, she was drawn to the Arts and Crafts style. “It harkened back to a period of Vancouver architecture that I had long admired,” she says, with both the exterior and interior having warm, welcoming, cosy aspects that she wanted for making friends and family feel at home. Yet the style lends itself nicely to contemporary updates and the cleaner lines she prefers.

The result is a home that has many niches and built-ins, but she resisted the overuse of wood trim, believing that it would stand in the way of a light-filled interior. She admits that when she ordered some of the trim painted out with Benjamin Moore Mascarpone, the men on the job regarded it as sacrilege.

Designing the home when she was in Ottawa had its challenges, but she was particularly grateful that Irving and Pitcher pointed her to Victoria for her finishes. “My natural tendency would have been to go to Vancouver but Victoria is a great place to source all these things. And kudos to the suppliers. There wasn’t anything that I couldn’t find there.”

Where possible, local materials and skills were used in the home, including the four-inch alder plank flooring, Salt Spring sandstone for the fireplace and cedar beams for the vaulted trusses from a Galiano mill. VB Carolyn Heiman is a writer and communications professional who has lived in four Victoria homes over more than 20 years and written about special homes in Boulevard’s Hot Properties since 2011. If you know a gorgeous home you’d like Carolyn to profile contact her at cheiman@shaw.ca.

When You liVe on the Golf course.

Set alongside the 18th fairway of the Mountain Course, these 12 golf course home sites are thoughtfully positioned to take full advantage of the natural terrain’s rugged beauty. Build your dream home & enjoy the view of the Golf Course from your backyard! Indulge in all that Bear Mountain has to offer, from The Westin Bear Mountain Golf Resort & Spa, two Nicklaus Design golf courses, great dining options, the Mountainside Athletic Club and more.

neWesT GOLF COUrse hOMe Bear MOUnTaIn’s

LOTs

PrICed FrOM $325K

*Golf MeMbership included

nOW seLLInG

*Golf membership initiation fee is included in the purchase of a lot at Hedgestone Lane.

Monthly dues will still apply.

For more info visit our website or Call 250.391.6100

BearMountain.ca/Lane 63

boulevard real estate

$11,498,000 Lisa Williams 250-514-1966 lisawilliams.ca

Boulevard magazine supports Southern Vancouver Island's top Realtors representing the region's finest real estate. In our pages, we hope you will find your next home, whether it is in the listings of the Great Homes/Great Realtors or here in the Boulevard Luxury Real Estate listings.

Both of these monthly advertising features bring you the finest selection of homes and condominiums Victoria has to offer. $7,900,000 Deedrie Ballard 250-744-3301 deedrieballard.com

$7,500,000

stevenson doell

law corporation

Li Read 250-537-7647 liread.com

World Class 4.94 acre Waterfront Estate; your own private Country Club!

Exclusive Cordova Bay location w/ 8900sqft 6 bedroom/ 9 bath luxurious main residence w/ 5 car garage, guest house, tennis court, pool & cabana, gym, incredible manicured grounds & entertaining areas. Private access to sandy beach & so much more!

Where elegance, high-class style, and family traditions blend together in a magical seaside setting!

Magnificent Uplands Waterfront home. Luxurious & elegant, this home has been completely updated & is situated on a spectacular secluded bay. Main floor with living room, library, dining room, kitchen with & family room - all with access to the expansive heated patio w/ fireplace that spans the length of the home. The upper floor features the master suite incl. powder room, walk in closet, sitting area including fireplace & balcony to enjoy the views.

Salt Spring Island: 5.4 acre oceanfront point, amazing private estate style property, with dock & beach. Superb panoramic views of ocean, islands, mountains. Sunny, s/sw/w/nw exposures... incredible sunsets! Osborne & Clark designed country home, delightful master wing, 3 guest cottages, studio, double garage, games pavilion, forest/meadow mix, private trails. Family retreat?

Corporate destination? An exquisite offering for the savvy investor. liread33@gmail.com

BOULEVARD LUXURY REAL ESTATE

EXCEPTIONAL SANDY BEACHFRONT!

$2,885,000 Lynne Sager 250-744-3301 lynnesager.com Camosun

$1,850,000 The Masters Group 250-385-2033 themastersgroup.ca

Ocean & Mt. Baker views from this 5100 sq ft. custom home. Stroll from your ocean side patio with gas fire pit, miles of sandy beach.

Situated on a quiet lane, with elegant privacy gates, & intercom controlled entry.

Heated Travertine floors, welcome you to a modern open floor plan. 10ft. ceilings, gourmet kitchen, two dishwashers, two fridges, and three ensuite bedrooms.

Isn’t this the prettiest home!

Many people & feature magazines have commented so over the years & now ‘Little Dene’ is offered for the first time since being built in 1937.

This traditional styled home of 3,669 sq.ft. is set on an outstanding ½ acre garden lot with loads of windows that invite the garden in from room to room. Maintained over the years with complementary renovations to the kitchen and guest areas. Admired by many, the owners have created a tranquil, private surrounding in a prime Victoria location.

Unbeatable Location!! 360 Degree Ocean & Mountain Views. 4600sqft plus of tastefully fashioned & decorated home. 7 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 6 fireplaces 4 Jacuzzi tubs, Alder cabinets, Radiant heated Engineered Oak and Tile flooring, 9’-10’ ceilings, wood windows, wood trims, 1000sqft garage, 9 $1,599,900 Decks/Patio’s plus a 900sqft Roof Top Deck with hot & Kyle Kerr cold water, gas or electric for 250-590-1775 hot tub & BBQ. A custom homesalesvictoria.com home built in 2001 and ran as a B&B for 5 years. $125k of Furnishings are included.

$2,390,000 Ron Neal 250-386-8181 RonNeal.com

Prestigious Garden Gate Estate on private 2.4 acre natural woodland setting, built to the highest of standards and offering more than 6,500 square feet of living space and seldom seen quality additional features. Gourmet chef’s kitchen, elegant master suite, separate guest accommodation, in ground salt water pool and more!

1251GardenGateRoad.com

Alliance

$1,695,000 Dolores Todd 250-744-3301 dolorestodd.com

$1,595,000 Donald St. Germain 250-744-7136 1566hampshire.com

Two lots sold as one with approx. 100 ft of waterfront.

This Spectacular 0.42 acre south facing waterfront enjoys stunning views of the Olympic Mountains,Fisgard Lighthouse,Esquimalt Harbour and the open ocean. Much potential as either a stunning building site or 2 separate lots.Very private, deep moorage,and a spacious view deck on the waters edge to enjoy the abundance of sea life. A rare find.... and a beautiful place to live.

Elegant 1916 character family home nestled on private, quiet large lot only steps to the Oak Bay Village in this sought after neighbourhood.

This 6 bed/4 bath 6,700+ sq ft. home offers traditional yet modern family living on 4 levels w/top quality workmanship. Main level features large grand room w/ fireplace & French doors, formal dining area, stunning kitchen w/ eat-in area overlooking the backyard, & sun room for morning coffee.

Shaw EXO is THE ULTIMATE NETWORK that delivers unmatched TV, Internet, and Home Phone. Our upgraded network yields more HD content, faster Internet speeds, and new user interfaces.

310.SHAW exo.shaw.ca

65

1,550,000 Leslee Farrell 250-388-5882 lesleefarrell.com

$1,398,800 Michael McMullen P.R.E.C. 250-881-8225 mcmullenhomes.ca

$999,000 Shaunna Jones 250-888-4628 shaunnajones.com

66

Situated at the end of a quiet byway in idyllic Ten Mile Point, this charming one level bungalow is situated on .55 acre of oceanfront enjoying world class views of Mt. Baker and the Gulf Islands beyond.

Built circa 1970, the home offers a flexible floor plan with beautiful ocean side sunroom with skylights. The sunroom and master suite open on to the Oceanside deck which spans the entire front of the home.

Waterfront family home tucked away on one of Cordova Bay’s most sought after private & beautiful streets. With sweeping views of Mt. Baker & San Juan Island this home welcomes you with a private front garden patio oasis.

The main floor features an open floor plan w/living rm & fireplace, dining rm, family rm, eating nook & modern kitchen. large back patio & perfectly private backyard w/path leading to the waters edge & secluded beach. MLS# 312772.

AMAZING OCEAN & CORDOVA BAY GOLF COURSE VIEWS This 2700 sq ft, elegant, corner unit has 3 bdrm, 4 bthrm & is located in the popular Sayward Hills development.

Walk right out from the kitchen to a private, sunny S/W landscaped patio with terrific built in gas BBQ area. Don’t miss out on the expansive views & sunsets of Haro Strait, Mt. Baker & the Gulf Islands!

$1,450,000 Sharen Warde & Larry Sims

250-592-4422 wardesims.com

$1,389,000 Sandra Hoff 250-818-5775 sandrahoff.com

$999,000 Susan English 250-217-5268 susanenglish.com

Urban elegance, on a .45 acre sunny lot with ocean views in Rockland. The open living & dining rooms overlook the lovely gardens, tiered deck & vista. The “Griffin” designed kitchen offers Island, Sub-Zero fridge, raised dishwasher, separate veggy sink & loads of cupboards. The upper level offers 3 bedrooms & family room. A separate upper wing & deck allows for the visitor, mom or nanny. This truly is a lovely home, lot and location.

If you are looking for your dream home, look no further!

This extraordinary 4100 sq ft, 4 bdrm home is rich in class & details. Offering views of the Gulf & San Juan Islands, Mt Baker, a stunning 18’ entrance, porcelain tile entry, gourmet kitchen, fully wired media room, an oversize double car garage, complemented by magical gardens with SW exposure.

MLS 314888

luxury rea

1717texada.com for more info

A perfect location - The Cherry Bank Residences - just a short stroll to the Inner Harbour, numerous restaurants, shopping & all that’s happening in downtown Victoria.

This magnificent 2 Bed, 3 Bath home enjoys air conditioning on it’s 2 levels.

A concrete & steel building, this sub-penthouse offers fantastic outdoor living.

Enjoy your private patio, 845 sq. ft of sunny SE exposure with ocean and mountain views. Perfect for entertaining!

al estate

BOULEVARD LUXURY REAL ESTATE

$995,000 David Scotney 250-384-8124 buyvictoriarealestate.com

Gorgeous arts and craft inspired lakefront home perched on a sunny 16,117 sq ft lot that is perfect for outdoor living & entertaining.

This stylish 2700 sq ft, 4 bed, 2008 custom built open plan concept home features a spacious gourmet kitchen/great room, granite coutertops, hardwood floors, solid wood doors, handcrafted book case showcasing a gas fireplace, heat pump, & a 742 sq ft garage/workshop.

$948,000 Cassie Kangas 250-477-7291 cassiekangas.com

OCEANFRONT Enjoy magnificent, everchanging views of Victoria Harbour, the ocean and Olympic Mountains from this south-facing 7th floor suite in sought after Swallows Landing. The unique floorplan offers 1774sf of high quality finishing, floor-to-ceiling $899,000 windows, ensuites in both bedrooms, 2 balconies, and Brian Andrew separate den. The Westsong 250-217-1048 Walkway to downtown is right brianjamesandrew.com at your doorstep. Condo living just doesn’t get any better than this.

$899,000 Nancy Vieira 250-514-4750 nancyvieira.com

PANORAMIC VIEWS of Sooke Basin on 2.56 rocky private acres.

•Lindel Cedar home with TWO master bedrooms plus den.

$799,900 Nancy Vieira 250-514-4750 nancyvieira.com

•Entertainment sized decks with sound system & endless views.

•Incredible slate flooring.

•Gourmet kitchen.

•Solarium overlooking garden.

$798,888 Karen Taber 250-508-9095 karensbesthomes.com

This brand new 4/5 bedroom executive home is located on a private “no through street” in Gordon Head. 2955sq ft of quality construction & finishing, the house sits on a large lot with South facing back yard. Main floor has an open plan kitchen, dining & living room plus separate den and rec room with en-suite.

4 beds upstairs including a fabulous master suite with en-suite & walk in closet.

Attached double garage.

Close to buses, schools & parks

Gordon’s Beach Farm.

Features a panoramic ocean view overlooking the Olympic Mountains, Juan de Fuca strait, and Sheringham Point Lighthouse. Relax and unwind on your 10 acre hobby farm located 10 minutes from the Village of Sooke, and one hour from Victoria. Easy stroll to many natural attractions including miles of rugged west coast beaches, ocean kayaking, windsurfing, incredible hiking, biking trails, and whale watching from shore.

Mint, nearly new 4 bdrm/4 bath home with so many extras. Craftsman detailing throughout, executive family home with tons of space, 3290 sq ft, huge master with Juliette balcony, separate dining room, gourmet kitchen, solid maple flooring on main with cozy gas fireplace, French doors, lots of light, 9 ‘ ceilings, wired man cave for pool table, heat pump, and award winning multi-level backyard deck. Call to view!

3827 South Valley Dr, Saanich West

We, the lawyers at Stevenson Doell Law Corporation, have experienced staff that specialize in Real Estate, Wills & Estates, Family Law & ICBC claims. For help, call Bob Doell, Brent Kitzke, Mary McManus, Heather Sweeney & Mark Walton at 250-388-7881.

250.388.7881

67

BOULEVARD LUXURY REAL ESTATE

$788,000 Cassie Kangas 250-477-7291 cassiekangas.com

$729,900 Sam Boyte 250-704-6226 docksiderealty.ca

$674,500 Craig Walters www.4on5th.ca 250-744-3301

Beautiful heritage style 1/2 duplex completed in 2008.

This home has 2400 sq ft of living over 3 floors. Main level features a large custom kitchen, a great room & dining room. Upstairs are two large bedrooms w/spa like ensuite. Walk out lower level w/huge laundry/wet bar, large media room/bedroom, ensuite bath & further living room. There is a fully fenced west facing rear garden with deck & lower covered patio.

Separate detached garage.

West Facing Walk-On Waterfront Paradise! Located in sheltered Thieves Bay on Pender Island, this exceptional 3BR, 2BA, 2600 sqft Oceanfront Rancher has vaulted ceilings, tile, marble, leaded glass & an open floor plan. An attached garage with a lofted ocean view studio & separate workshop complete the package.

Delightful in every aspect & motivated sellers are open to offers!

One of Four brand new, state of the art, townhome style, “fee simple” homes.

No strata fees! Right in downtown “Sidney by the Sea” Enjoy hardwood, quartz, designer tile, gas fireplace, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, flex room, 6 appliances, work shop, double garage and full new home warranty! Walk to the oceanfront and shopping. Sidney is your backyard! Contact us today for a private viewing! craig@craigwalters.net

$765,000 Melina Boucher 250-385-2033 melinaboucher.ca

$728,800 Ivan Delano P.R.E.C. 250-744-8506 ivandelano.com

$669,900 Julie Rust 250-477-1100 julierust.ca

This private, Gorge waterfront property awaits you! Enjoy the cascading back decks, hot tub, oversized lot and beautiful gardens for outdoor entertaining. Launch your kayak from your own private beach. Excellent floor plan with beautiful views, 3/4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms & suite potential. Walking distance to shopping, trails and schools. If you desire a waterfront home there is no better value in Victoria! 944 Rankin Road.

Character Home nestled among premium properties in this unique & desirable location, minutes to everything. Enter on the new interlock paved Driveway, w/ new carport then onto the large yard. Once in, spacious rooms, hardwood Floors, grand living & dining room w/ an old stone fireplace, roomy country kitchen, nice reading room facing large new deck.

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One of the finest remaining oceanfront lots at Silver Spray Oceanfront Estates! This fabulous Ocean Park Place address offers full southern exposure, exceptional views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and snow-capped Olympic Mountains, and a trail down to your own private rocky shore. Set in a small cove the shore is protected from crashing surf. This gently sloping, low bank estate lot is ideal for your luxurious oceanfront dreamhome.

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DESIGN MATTERS

flip on the

light fantastic

By Sarah MacNeill

In the winter of 2003 at the Tate Modern in London, Danish sculptor Olafur Eliasson transformed the gallery’s Turbine Hall with an exhibit entitled “The Weather Project.” In the five-storey room, a giant semi-circular disc was erected on the wall and reflected in a mirrored ceiling to give the effect of a massive sun, drenching the hall in an orange glow. During its six-month show, more than two million people flocked to the exhibit, escaping the grey skies of London. Visitors lay on the floor like sunbathers, gazing up at their mirrored image as humidifiers misted the air with a mixture of sugar and water.

70

In these darkest days of the year, light — both natural and artificial — is profoundly important. Local artist Robert Youds says light has an enormous bearing on our psychological well-being. “Light, in its multiple forms, is what defines our understanding of the world we inhabit,” says Youds, noting that simple lighting gestures have the potential to create completely different human experiences of physical space.

Architecture can also enhance, or be enhanced by, light. If you’ve been to the Chapel of St. Ignatius in Seattle, you’ve likely appreciated this. Architect Steven Holl came up with a metaphor for

the building’s design: seven bottles of coloured light in a stone box. During the day, the geometries and surfaces of the interior are emphasized by strategically placed direct and ambient natural light, whereas at night, the exterior becomes a collection of abstract volumes glowing colourfully from within.

There are many beautiful light fixtures in Victoria’s many lighting stores. Since darkness falls ever earlier this month, I set out to find some of the most artful and unusual, if not efficient illuminators, that are guaranteed to light up our workspaces, our homes and maybe even our lives.



David Trubridge



Moooi

pendant light

This botanical-inspired design has many features to covet: its wide variety of sizes (diameters range from 40 to 100 cms), finishes (natural bamboo or painted), and colours (black, white, caramel, natural, or natural with the inside painted one of seven colours.) The lanternlike shades are shipped neatly flat-packed and deconstructed so packaging and shipping cost is minimal, and it will arrive in perfect condition. Instructions for assembling the identical bamboo plywood pieces with nylon fasteners are included, and no tools are required.

A straightforward assembly video is also on the New Zealand designer’s website, davidtrubridge.com. Perhaps the most beautiful thing about this piece is the abstracted pattern cast on surrounding surfaces as light from an efficient halogen bulb passes through the negative space of the bamboo cut-outs.

Prices range from $290 - $1,340 and they are stocked at Spencer Interiors in Vancouver.

horse lamp

The right floor lamp has the ability to set the tone of a room, so I wanted to find a striking — if not totally absurd — one. The Moooi Horse Lamp, available at Gabriel Ross, is just the thing. Entirely over-stated, it takes a very spacious room to house this black beauty.

The Horse Lamp is life-size (perfect for those who always wanted a pony but never got one) and combines an icon of the natural world with contemporary minimalism, ensuring an unforgettable attention-grabber.

The shade is a PVC viscose laminate, and the horse itself is polyester on a metal frame structure. Love it or hate it, this piece is extravagant at $8,181.



Living colours

A little colour goes a long way with the Living Colors Lamp available at Illuminations. The small (less than six inches tall) ball-shaped LED light projector comes in several finishes and its touch-sensitive colour wheel allows you to select one of 256 hues to create a colourspectrum inspired ambience in any room. When skies are grey, a sunny yellow will brighten the space. In this case, it’s not so much the object that’s interesting, but rather the lamp’s ability to transform the atmosphere of a space with a single touch. The price for this series ranges from $199 to $329.

Photo of Coral pendant lamp courtesy of David Trubridge Design



Gayalux table lamp

Austere and architectural, Lampe Gayalux by French concrete artist Xiral Segard, is unmistakably European. A spherical concrete skin is interrupted at its midpoint to allow a horizontal circumferential streak of internal light to be visible — as though the top half of the ball is levitating. The table lamp comes in two sizes — petite with a diameter of 18 cm, and grande with a diameter of 26 cm. The design is nearly 10 years old, but its simplicity makes it timeless. It won’t light up an entire room, but its appealing quality is more of a lit artifact. The Gayalux can be ordered via Segard’s website (xiralsegard.com) starting at almost $300.

71

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series

Vancouver-based Bocci designs and manufactures its products in a renovated Art Deco building near Granville Island. Bocci achieved global recognition with its premier 14 series — a cast recycled glass sphere with an internal light source. When hung in clusters with infinite compositional strategies, the pendants achieve a constellation effect rather than the centralized style of traditional chandeliers. The more recent 28 series consists of blown glass pendants, each one subtly different from the next. A clear or coloured glass sphere houses an internal milky glass cavity and Bocci’s proprietary LED lamp. Smith Designs recently showcased the 28 series in the dining area of a residential project on Salt Spring Island. A rainbow of spheres hanging at differing heights provides a pleasing contrast in a space where wood is a prominent material. Series 38 is a visionary lighting system consisting of copper-wire linked blown glass spheres with irregular white cavities that are deep enough to contain succulent plants.

Bocci is available at Only Human, on Yates Street, where individual spheres start at $330 and customized design requests are welcome.

When natural light wanes in winter months, we instinctively rely on other sources of it — and when such light is captured or transmitted by beautifully designed objects it makes up for the sorrow-inducing nightfall half an hour before quitting time.

Well, almost. VB Sarah MacNeill is interested in all things design, from typography to toy making, although her education and experience is in architecture. From Victoria, she now lives in Shawnigan Lake.

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

lifest yle “cross-tr aining”

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A bold statement, but it’s the real reason we are here at Victoria Wellness.

When Victoria Wellness first opened in 2001, we felt there had to be a place in the community with an environment that demonstrated that someone truly cared about the people here and would support their fitness needs as individuals.

Today there are many fitness choices, but our mission remains the same; to be the one choice that offers our members a fun, supportive place to workout and achieve their goals. We make it easy to get fit and stay fit. More than just those standard gyms, we offer our members the best in functional training, personal training for groups or individuals, nutrition support and meal design in order to reach their goals faster.

Thank you for your support and for allowing us to continue our mission to change lives and help our members live a higher quality of life through fitness. We hope we’ll see you soon.

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may help ward off br aindestroying dementias By shannon moneo

I

t’s Friday morning at Berwick Royal Oak, a

retirement residence near Saanich Commonwealth Place. Six women and two men sit in one of the common rooms, the youngest, 78, the oldest, 95, all of them about to do their 45-minute mental aerobics session led by Berwick’s gregarious recreation manager Wendy Thomas.

Each person in the group, most of whom are lean and mobile, starts by touching the nose with a left finger while touching the left shoulder with a right finger, then reversing.

They move onto tapping one foot while lifting the other back and forth, later clapping hands to different beats.

Then come brain teasers, which Thomas gleaned from braingle.com. Rounding out the session is the geography game, where players name a spot that starts with the last letter of the previous answer. In a nod to their well-travelled and wellread lives, these sharpies don’t allow words that end in “A” because that’s too easy, Thomas says. Helen Dahlstrom, 95, an accomplished pianist and teacher, quickly named places from her birth province, Saskatchewan, drawing laughs over the obscure locations. This is a group that enjoys a joke. The married couple, Doug Asp, 90, and Anne Shuttleworth, 78, were playfully competitive, he correcting her English, she shooting right back.

Mental flexing, like bridge, other card games and crossword puzzles were the norm for these anything but sedate seniors.

Robbie Robinson, 88, a retired veterinarian, does Sudokus and plays brain games on his computer.

And don’t forget physical exercise. “I like to go to the Zoom Room,” Asp says of workouts he does in Berwick’s gym.

“Walking and lots of vegetables,” Dahlstrom adds.

POSTER CHILDREN FOR HEALTHY BRAINS These engaging seniors appear to be poster children for healthy brains, people who both have and share remembrances of things past. They’re the lucky ones.

Alzheimer’s — a slowly progressing and fatal disease that erases memory, cognition and personality — and related dementias are predicted to skyrocket in Canada as boomers age. In 2008, about 104,000 new dementia cases were diagnosed. By 2038, annual diagnoses will be 258,000,

Life just got fair.

according to the study “Rising Tide: The Impact of Dementia on Canadian Society.” In 2038, 1.13 million Canadians will have dementia, compared to 481,000 in 2008.

According to US neurologist, university professor and author of 19 books, Dr. Richard Restak, lifestyle plays a role in keeping brain-destroying dementias at bay. Speaking from his Washington, D.C. medical office, Restak, 70, internationally recognized for his work on the brain, says the behaviours of avoiding smoking, moderate alcohol consumption and a healthy diet (lots of green vegetables) promote brain health.

But one of the biggest ways to keep the brain in the pink is exercise, at least 20 to 30 minutes, three to four times each week. “There have been big insights in the last couple of years that what’s good for the heart is good for the brain,” Restak says, meaning cardiovascular exercise that boosts blood flow to the brain. Quality sleep is also important, he says.

Restak has also created 12, 30-minute lectures, titled “Optimizing Brain Fitness,” which address topics like care and feeding of the brain, taking advantage of technology, putting senses to work and using emotional memory. The series exercises multiple brain functions to enhance brain plasticity — the ability to mould and improve the brain even as we age.

GOING FOR LIFESTYLE “CROSS-TRAINING” The lectures go beyond mental exercises that are specific to one area, Restak says. As an example, Restak’s wife faithfully does the New York Times crossword puzzle. “You get good at puzzles only,” he says, which is why cognitive exercises like those found on the Lumosity site have limited value.

University of Victoria psychology professor Stuart MacDonald frequently has people asking him about the value of online programs like Lumosity. A specialist in cognitive aging, MacDonald says such brain workouts don’t hurt but the litmus test for improvement is whether what’s trained for is actually transferred to daily life.

He’s fond of what he calls “lifestyle cross-training,” a daily mix of doing simple physical activities like walking or gardening, mental push-ups like completing the word Jumble or reading, eating healthy foods and living an engaged life.

“How about walking book clubs?” he suggests. But make it fast.

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76

Recent research has found that slow walkers had shortened lifespans and quicker mental declines than fast walkers, MacDonald notes. At UVic, the Victoria Longitudinal Study to evaluate aging has been following people since 1986.

MacDonald, one of the study’s leaders, says a relationship between walking speed and mental and physical health has been established. “The slowest walkers have earlier declines,” he says.

Last July in Vancouver, over 4,300 people attended the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference. Some findings were that slower gaits could indicate cognitive decline, exercise improves mental functioning, sleeping less or more than seven hours each day resulted in lower average cognition, social isolation is connected to cognitive impairment, and binge drinking in late-life increases the risk of cognitive decline.

AN ELEMENT OF HELPLESSNESS But still, the real cause, and thus the cure, of the various dementias remains unsolved. “There’s an element of helplessness,” notes MacDonald. One revelation is that a naturally occurring protein called beta amyloid accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer’s victims. “In a healthy brain, beta amyloid has positive functions but at some point, things run amok and protein fragments that seemed useful form sticky protein clumps in the brain,” MacDonald explains.

As Restak says, it’s unknown why the build-up happens. “Is

there more of it? We don’t know.” One study noted by Restak is that when people move to the US or Canada from countries where the Alzheimer’s rate is lower, their children, the second generation, have higher rates of Alzheimer’s. “This hints that it’s environmental,” Restak says.

Another consideration is that when autopsies are done on people who showed signs of Alzheimer’s, people with “cognitive reserves” seemed to be protected from a full progression of the disease, notes Restak. Well-educated individuals and those with high IQs enjoy the protective factor, MacDonald says. It’s also known that brain changes can start as early as age 25, he added.

While drugs may treat Alzheimer’s symptoms, no drugs in Canada slow the disease’s assault. One new drug claiming to curb progression is Gammagard, discussed at the Vancouver conference. A three-year American study by pharmaceutical company Baxter International involved 16 patients. While participants didn’t show improvement in most of their Alzheimer’s symptoms, they didn’t display further decline of cognition, memory, daily functioning or mood over the three years. But Gammagard is expensive to produce. Rich in antibodies and made from healthy people’s plasma, it’s already used for those with immune disorders.

Back at Berwick Royal Oak, some of those mental aerobics devotees aren’t concerned with Alzheimer’s research. They’re more intent on naming a place that begins with “E.” VB

BUSINESS PROFILE advertising

Word of Mouth When a new patient told Dr. Rick Chambers that she’d read glowing testimonials about him online, it was the first the dentist had heard about them.

But it turns out that Rick is so well regarded his patients have been posting notes at RateMDs.com for years.

“I’m in my early 40’s and hardly remember a time I didn’t go to Dr. Chambers,” says one patient, who must have been among Rick’s first when he began his Victoria practice 32 years ago.

“I have had Richard Chambers as my dentist since 1990. I have total trust in his work,” writes another.

And perhaps most telling of all, “My whole family now goes to Rick…”

Dr. Rick Chambers “I’ve had patients since they were three years old,” Rick notes. & Karen Leavitt “And now I’m seeing their kids.”

250.382.1541 In fact, he and his associate, Dr. Karen Leavitt, and their staff are treating the third and even fourth generations in some families.

“It’s a family practice for all ages,” Rick says. “We do a lot of hygiene because prevention is extremely important.”

However, it is also a full-service practice. As well as general treatments, composite restorations, endodontics, and implant restoration, Dr. Chambers also offers cosmetic procedures and Dr. Leavitt offers Invisalign orthodontics.

“It’s very satisfying,” Rick says. “Sometimes even small procedures let people feel less self-conscious.”

Still, neither dentist will do unnecessary treatments, a fact that is also recounted online. Rick, Karen and all the staff put the “care” in dental care. You’ve got their patients’ word on it.

Call 250.382.1541 for an appointment, and check up on them for yourself!

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image courtesy of revelstoke mountain resort

78

TRAVEL NEAR

Getting stoked

on Revelstoke

Known for its steep and deep, Revelstoke Mountain Resort is the serious skier’s mountain of the moment

by Adrienne Coburn

W

hen my alarm sounds at 6 am, I reach over, still half asleep, and check the snow report on my computer: 30 centimetres overnight. Who cares about more shut-eye? It’s another Revelstoke “pow day.”

These days, Revelstoke Mountain Resort is on every advanced skier and boarder’s lips, with a growing reputation for severe, challenging terrain and massive amounts of powder snow — as much as 16 metres a year.

Formerly called Mount Mackenzie and a hub for cat and helicopter skiing in the Selkirk Mountains, BC’s newest resort is about 10 minutes outside the town of Revelstoke and two hours from the Alberta border. It’s also known as the place where the Last Spike was driven for the nation-building railway and where avalanches frequently close the highway.

Just five years old, the ski resort is already becoming legendary, drawing powder hounds and steep terrain enthusiasts from all over the world. Skiing Magazine last year called it “epic, grow-a-pair” skiing. Powder Magazine featured it as its main cover story this past September.

That reputation is why I moved there last fall to spend the winter skiing and working. If you’re a serious skier or boarder, likely it’s on your bucket list, too.

I’m now 24 and I’ve been skiing and

boarding since I was two (and taught snowboarding at an Ontario private ski club), but after just two weeks at Revelstoke, I felt I had doubled my snowboarding ability. And I made friends with skiers and boarders from all over the world who, like me, were there Revelstoke has long, because of Revelstoke’s reputation as the mountain of the moment. steep runs, plenty Skier visits have increased by 30 per of trees, and ample cent since 2011, says Sarah Windsor, thrills like cliff drops, resort spokesperson.

Glades and bowls. It Here’s an insider’s guide to the is not a mountain for mountain everyone is talking about: First, the stories of steep and deep beginners. are all true. Revelstoke has long, steep runs, plenty of trees, and ample thrills like cliff drops, glades and bowls. It also has the highest lift-accessed vertical in North America, surpassing Whistler’s record, and has one of the world’s longest runs at 15.2 kilometres. It has 1,260 hectares of inbound terrain made up of 56 marked runs, two bowls and 15 gladed areas.

Revelstoke is not a mountain for beginners — half of the inbound runs are advanced. Vertigoinducing runs like Kill the Banker, which runs underneath the gondola, and the Sub Peak hike will have even expert skiers shaking in their boots. My mother, 56, an expert skier who’s skied at resorts all over North America, says, “It’s not for the faint of heart or weak of legs.” It has

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some of the most difficult runs she’s ever skied.

Says Chris Rubens, on the mountain’s sponsored Pro team: “It has some of the best fall line skiing in North America, with a steep frontside that leaves your legs begging for a break.”

Only seven per cent of the terrain is currently suitable for a learner. The resort is aiming to adjust the balance to welcome families, and opened the Turtle Creek beginner area, with magic carpet lift, last year. And the resort does offer a good selection of intermediate terrain — about 40 per cent of runs — with some fun gladed areas and beautiful, long groomers.

For many, Revelstoke’s rustic appeal harkens back to Whistler, circa the early 1980s, before all the glitz and glam came into that mega resort. Known as RMR, the resort is still in the planning phases of expansion, with just three main lifts in operation. A single gondola leaves from the valley floor and therefore long lines can form by mid-morning of a weekend.

Mid-week, however, locals run the show, leaving the majority of the hill and the lifts empty. On a Wednesday afternoon it is common to ski right onto the lifts and then through the woods for 20 minutes without seeing another soul. This also means that mid-week dumps of powder can last untouched for days.

Just three dining areas are at the base of the mountain. La Baguette, a local favourite, has fresh bread, soups and sandwiches. Rockford Wok Bar and Grill is a great area for an après ski drink or “wok-inspired” West Coast bite to eat. Wino is a new, elegant wine bar with a view of the mountain. the town has better eating options The town of Revelstoke has better options for après ski, offering many pubs and restaurants with an authentic mountain feel, at a cheaper price than the mountain itself. The Village Idiot is a locally owned grill pub and restaurant with hilarious ski décor and a diverse American menu, including gluten-free pizza. At 4 pm you’ll find dozens of skiers, still in wet ski gear, sharing a plate of nachos and a pitcher of local Begbie Kolsch beer. The Last Drop, a classic pub, is known for its famous “Pow Jugs” — $10 pitchers of beer on days it snows more than 10 centimetres. Or, cross the Columbia River to the Big Eddy Pub for music, a fun atmosphere, and hearty food.

A number of options exists for accommodation. The Sutton Place Hotel at the base of the mountain has ski-in/ski-out luxury. The rooms are beautiful with a breathtaking view, but start at about $500 a night for a studio during high season, like Christmas break. Hotels in town include the Sandman Hotel, the Best Western Plus, Bighorn Lodge, and the Days Inn. The town also offers budget motels such as the Swiss Chalet, Super 8, Revelstoke Inn, Samesun Backpacker Hostel and Powder Springs, and numerous guesthouses. Most hotels in town offer a complimentary shuttle to the mountain.

A complete list of Revelstoke accommodation and more information can be found at the Revelstoke Mountain Resort website, revelstokemountainresort.com. Coming from Victoria it is best to fly to Kelowna and rent a car. The drive from Kelowna is about two hours. VB

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FOOD & WINE

Stewed apple chunks and cinnamon jazz up a bowl of steelcut oatmeal.

your wintertim e breakfast just got tastier with n ew grains an d add-ins

by maryanne carmack

A

bowl of porridge will fuel you for your day as no other breakfast can. We eat it year round at our house (my daughter loves it), but something about November’s chill makes a creamy, steaming bowl of porridge even more appealing. Our family eats it warm with milk and I like to add raisins or other fruit. Porridge is cheap, nutritious, and heartily delicious. And these days, oatmeal is only the beginning.

Porridge, also called stirabout, mush, and the very unappetizing gruel, is any of a number of grains that have been cracked or rolled, steamed and flattened, and then boiled in water or milk until soft. The classic is oatmeal (steel cut is healthiest) but you can also use cracked wheat, coarse-ground corn (polenta or grits), and whole or cracked brown rice, spelt, kamut, millet, barley or quinoa. Just about any grain makes good porridge. The key is to cook it longer than you would if you were going to serve the same grain for dinner, and in more water.

At the age of five, I got up every morning and made porridge for my family using a threeto-one ratio of water to rolled oats: today, the standard is four to one. I was proud of myself for being able to contribute to my family and make the most important meal of the day. My dad started experimenting and came up with his funky version of breakfast cereal he likes to call “horse chow,” which includes rolled oats, pine nuts, almonds, raisins and a few chocolate chips. Boulevard managing editor Anne Mullens starts many of her winter mornings with warm quinoa, making a big pot for her week and storing it in the fridge. She zaps a daily portion in the microwave with nuts, fresh

or dried fruit, milk and a bit of brown sugar.

Mullens says her breakfast is “yummy and, with the extra protein, it stays with you until lunch.”

To save time in the morning, you can prepare porridge the night before with a crock pot. An even easier method is to put the grain and warm water in a Thermos, cover with a tea cosy or thick kitchen towel and you should have nicely cooked porridge in the morning. The most reliable way of cooking your porridge is the stove-top method. Add in whatever you like: maple syrup, honey, brown sugar, molasses, jam, raisins, minced dried fruit, sliced fresh fruit, milk, rice milk, cream or even buttermilk, as they do in Scotland. Add a pat of butter or sprinkling of cinnamon, or not.

QUINOA PORRIDGE

JUst about any grain makes a good porridge; Add n uts, Dried fruit, or Berries for extra pizazz.

with CINNAMON APPLES

1 cup red quinoa, rinsed and drained 2 cups water 1 tbsp butter 1 apple, peeled, cored and diced ½ tsp salt 1 tbsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp maple syrup ⅓ cup sliced almonds 1 ½ cups almond milk 1 tbsp half-and-half cream, or to taste (optional)

Rinse and drain the quinoa well, until the water runs clear, to remove the soapy, bitter saponin coating. Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender and the water has been absorbed, about 15 to 20 minutes. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the apple, and sprinkle with salt, cinnamon, and maple syrup. Stir in the almonds. Cook and stir until the apple is hot and beginning to soften, two to three minutes. Pour in the almond milk and half-and-half cream; continue cooking until hot. Stir in the hot quinoa, and cook a few minutes before serving.

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TRADITIONAL OATMEAL PORRIDGE 4 cups (1 litre) water 1 cup (180 grams) steel-cut Irish oatmeal ¼ tsp salt In a medium-sized saucepan bring the four cups of water to boil. Sprinkle the oatmeal over the boiling water, stirring constantly to prevent any lumps. Add the salt and reduce the heat to low, allowing the porridge to simmer for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Serve with brown or white sugar and rich milk or cream. Leftovers can be covered and refrigerated for another morning. To reheat, simply add a little hot water or milk to thin out the porridge and then place in the microwave or in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until warm. VB

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Drinks

By Sharon McLean

If you need a wine pairing for porridge, you may be in some trouble. But just as porridge is a comforting, warming food for winter, some drinks serve that same purpose — at least through history.

To me, tawny ports are among the best soothers for grown-ups. They are aged for years and slowly take on the typical amber colour, developing gorgeous nutty, spicy, orange notes that pair perfectly with a frosty evening or a bedtime nightcap. Try the Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Old Tawny (BCLDB $39.99), or their 20 Year Old as a special treat (BCLDB $69.99).

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Over the years, St. Bernard dogs have been depicted with casks of brandy around their necks to revive travellers lost in the Alps. While that tradition is mostly myth, my cask would hold Courvoisier VSOP Cognac, a delicious, restorative brandy (BCLDB $41.29/375ml).

My Scottish family relied on a hot toddy to settle an upset tummy. It’s not a tradition that I’ve carried on with my children, but there is something comforting about wrapping yourself around a warm drink when you’re feeling miserable. To make, add 1 to 1 1/2 oz Scotch to a cup of hot water and stir in 1 to 2 tsp of sugar. You don’t need a fancy Scotch — save those for drinking neat. Try Famous Grouse, Bell’s or Grant’s blended Scotches.

Many herbal liqueurs started off as medicines. As early as the 13th century, monks were distilling alcohol and adding herbs to disguise the taste. Think Benedictine and Chartreuse. Jägermeister follows the same model, but didn’t make its appearance as a cure for digestive problems and a cough medicine until the 1930s. Its effectiveness may be questionable, but it certainly tastes like medicine!

Calling these drinks healthful may be stretching it, but warming and soothing — definitely.

Sharon McLean is a sommelier, wine instructor, wine judge and consultant who loves to travel, but is proud to call Victoria home. She is the wine writer for Boulevard.

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The CRD Wishes You a Green Holiday Season!

When gift-giving, purchase a product that can be recycled after it is enjoyed. Choose a gift that’s made from natural products.

Give re-gifted presents. Look for gifts that have reduced packaging or no packaging at all. Wrap gifts in newspaper. This Christmas reduce, reuse and recycle. For more recycling information contact us at: CRD Hotline at 250.360.3030 www.crd.bc.ca/holidayrecycling

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Alexis Yobbagy Photography is all about creative and imaginative portraits for all ages. Maybe your daughter has just had a baby? Maybe you’d like a family portrait or a timeless photo of the grandparents? Alexis is an Accredited and Award Winning Member of the Professional Photographers of Canada.

“Seeing is Believing” Alexis Yobbagy Photography 250.380.1386 www.alexisyobbagy.com

Autumn Glory The onset of autumn brings glorious warm colours of the season. Gorgeous locally-grown gerbera daisies, richly-coloured roses and classic calla lilies are mixed in with protea and leucodendron to create a fall bouquet of fresh flowers.

Photo by Courtney Hawkins.

Open and delivering everyday.

Brown’s The Florist Downtown - 757 Fort Street 250.388.5545 Sidney - 2499 Beacon Avenue 250.656.3313 www.brownsflorist.com

Deluxe Luggage Rack Make your guests feel welcomed. Durable chrome rack is the perfect guest luggage storage solution.

Also use when packing for a trip or use with a tray as a portable occasional table inside or outside. Folds up for easy storage when not in use.

26” X 15” X 21” All Organized Storage Ltd. 3370 Tennyson Ave. 250.590.6328 $55.00 www.allorganizedstorage.ca

Tipcup is an ingenious, awardwinning tea brewer designed by Daniela Cubelic of Silk Road Tea. Tip one way to brew tea (with strainer positioned underwater), then tip the other way to drink (so tea is no longer steeping). Only $24.99. One of the many beautiful gift ideas at Silk Road this holiday season.

Silk Road Tea 1624 Government Street 250.704.2688 www.silkroadtea.com

Christmas at Bubby’s Bubby’s Kitchen serves a skillfully-presented, palate-pleasing, dining experience in an environmentally-friendly atmosphere. We have developed a reputation for unpretentiousness in a neighbourhood setting that appeals to all ages, couples, singles, and families. Breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner, we are open 7 days a week in beautiful Cook Street Village.

Planning a Christmas Function? We can accomodate parties from 5 to 50.

Call early to book!

Bubby’s Kitchen 355 Cook Street 250.590.8915 www.bubbyskitchen.ca

Blue Bridge 2013 Blue Pass Don’t miss out on theatre that critics describe as “Superbly Directed,” “A Masterful Mosaic” and “remarkable.” This season’s offerings are A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline, the romantic story of distant soulmates with Love Letters, Chekhov’s classic tale Uncle Vanya, Neil Simon’s hit comedy Brighton Beach Memoirs and the incredible musical My Fair Lady. Winning awards since their first season, Blue Bridge has something for everyone! And when you purchase a Blue Pass, you can save up to 20% on each show!

Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre 600 - #3 Fan Tan Alley 250.385.4462 Passes starting from $49.00 www.bluebridgetheatre.ca

Limited Edition Linocut Prints reflecting the rural landscape. Ravens, robins and wrens, contemporary folk pillows and framed art made from wool blankets. Art cards, wool gloves and traditional gifts made by hand.

Nov & Dec shop hours are Thurs - Sun, 10 - 4.

Cash or Cheque only Wren House Garden & Shop 5701 East Sooke Road, Sooke BC 250.642.0874 www.wrenhousegardenandshop.com

Head over Heels If that special woman in your life loves shoes (what woman doesn’t?), then your best choice is to give her a gift certificate from Head over Heels.

Head over Heels has an incredible range of footwear from respected lines including United Nude (shown), Art, Hispanitas, Gabor, Neosens, and, of course, Toms. We also have a great selection of locally designed jewelry and other accessories that are always perfect for giving.

Head over Heels 1323 Blanshard Street 250.590.5154 www.headoverheelsvictoria.ca

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The Butchart Gardens 12-Month Pass The Perfect Holiday Gift! Looking for a gift to be enjoyed year round? Give a 5-seasons experience from The Butchart Gardens. The 12-month pass includes unlimited* visits to The Gardens, discounts on food (excluding alcohol) at all restaurants and seasonal kiosks, discounts on merchandise from The Seed and Gift Store, reduced rates on eco-friendly boat tours, and more! *some restrictions apply

The Butchart Gardens 250.652.4422 $54.54 + HST until Dec.31/12 www.butchartgardens.com TEKNIKA Cookware by Silga Directly imported from Milan and exclusive to The Tuscan Kitchen, TEKNIKA is innovative Italian design at its best. It uses only the highest quality materials and offers technical and functional solutions which facilitates use and maintenance, including ergonomic handles and pouring edges. The thick “Teknotherm” base provides fast and uniform heat diffusion over all heat sources.

Oven, dishwasher and fridge safe.

The Tuscan Kitchen 653 View St. 250.386.8191 From $120.00 www.thetuscankitchen.com

Exquisitely Unique Jewellery, Fashion and Gifts.

Hand crafted with Swarovski crystals.

Even the gift boxes are gorgeous.

Michal Negrin 1225 Government St. 250.385.8400 www.mnegrinvictoria.com

Victoria Gin We make Victoria Gin by hand in small batches in a wood-fired still on the Saanich Peninsula. This award-winning spirit balances the characteristic evergreen flavour of juniper with notes of citrus, floral, and spice.

Our artisan process creates an intensely flavoured spirit, as full-bodied and complex as a fine single-malt whisky. Handmade on the Island, Victoria Gin is now available across Canada. Learn more and meet the family behind it by visiting our website.

Victoria Spirits 250.544.8217 $49.95 www.victoriaspirits.com

IMAX Victoria Annual Pass The largest IMAX screen in BC is yours for the giving. Powerful surround sound and immense screen offer the gift of adventure. With IMAX — they won’t just see a movie, they will experience it! Valid for unlimited IMAX films all year round, limited quantities available.

IMAX Victoria is located inside the world famous Royal BC Museum 250.480.4887 Ext #4 or #3 $46 www.imaxvictoria.com

Bubby Rose’s Bakery & Café A favourite of locals and lucky tourists, Bubby Rose’s Bakery & Café welcomes you to enjoy locally-roasted coffee, handmade croissants, award-winning cinnamon rolls, pies, and cookies — made with love and passion. Come in for light breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. Many surprisingly delicious gluten-free options are available.

Bubby Rose’s Bakery & Café 1022 Cook Street 250.472.8229 www.bubbyrosesbakery.com

SORA Spa at Hotel Grand Pacific What better way to say you care than the gift of relaxation? Sink into some of the most extraordinary spa treatments Victoria has to offer at the new SORA spa located in the Hotel Grand Pacific. Our Asianinspired signature treatments will take you to new heights of relaxation.

SORA Spa 463 Belleville Street 250.380.7862 www.soraspa.ca

The ‘Atom’ Boot by Olsenhaus is a faux suede material made entirely of industrial television waste. Vshoen is the first 100% vegan-only shoe boutique on Vancouver Island. Step out this season and embrace a kinder option. Vshoen is dedicated to providing high fashion without cruelty; a destination boutique for the ethically conscious.

Vshoen Boutique 620 Broughton Street 250.590.7463 (shoe) www.vshoen.com

SKN Spin & After Glow Transform your skin in just 8 minutes a week!

The SKN Spin is a revolutionary skincare tool that will rejuvenate, exfoliate, and enhance product penetration. Rolling with the SKN Spin once a week can help reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, larges pores, crows feet and more! Complete your home rejuvenation program with the nutrient and antioxidant rich AfterGlow Replenishing Skin Oil — the perfect companion to the SKN Spin. www.sknspin.com

Bosca Briefcase It’s a briefcase so beautiful it’ll make you want to wear a suit seven days a week.

Made in Italy, this Bosca briefcase is just one of countless gift ideas you’ll find at Outlooks. Come check out Momentum timepieces, beautiful Scottish scarves, plush robes, pajamas, wild Italian socks, even wilder Swedish underwear, the ever-popular magnetic collar stays and a sea of ties, shirts, sweaters and more. Can’t decide?

We do gift cards too.

Outlooks Menswear 534 Yates Street Victoria 53 Station Street Duncan 250.384.2848 www.outlooksformen.com

Pandora Bracelet Make her Christmas special by making it a Shades of White Christmas.

The beautiful Pandora Jewelry line offers you valuable, meaningful and personalized gifts for every special woman in your life that you can build upon through special memories and occasions year round! Shades of White has one of the largest selections on Vancouver Island, so be sure to visit us for all your holiday giving.

Shades of White 3497 Saanich Road 250.475.1220 www.shadesofwhite.com

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mattick’s farm BE READY FOR A UNIQUE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE! If you want shopping to be fabulous, visit our 15 shops at Mattick’s Farm. With our vibrant and diverse mix of shops and restaurants, this is a shopping destination that is totally unique and worth devoting a full day for exploration!

Pure Day Spa Make Pure Day Spa Your Holiday Getaway! Our full service spa in Mattick’s Farm has everything you need this season. Look your best for holiday events with trendy OPI nail colours, eyelash extensions and our own exclusive line of Pure Make Up. Relax with reflexology or let us give you amazing holiday skin with a personalized Skin Ceuticals Facial. Online booking and Gift Certificates.

250.590.7873 www.purevictoria.com

10 Bottle Serpentine Vase Coil, curve or straight down a dining table or mantel.

Place blooms or branches in unexpected settings.

Darkened zinc structure can be twisted anyway you like giving you endless design possibilities.

Elephant Flowers Floral Design #113-5325 Cordova Bay Road 250.658.2455 $65.95 www.elephantflowers.com

Garneau Sheepskin Slippers For a practical quality gift that a loved one will truly appreciate, give Canadian-made Garneau sheepskin slippers or Haflinger boiled wool slippers made in Europe. We offer other fine brands for both men and women in a wide selection of colours and sizes. Please come and enjoy our eclectic offering of fine footwear and fun dog cat and horse-themed, gift-giving goodies.

Open daily from 10-5:30. We look forward to your visit.

A Stable Way of Life 5325 Cordova Bay Road 250.658.3052

Kameleon Necklace Interchangeable jewelry … create a custom look!

Every nook and cranny of our delightful shop is filled with functional giftware, linens, candles, luxurious bath products, jewelry and much more. Drop in today and delight your senses, treat someone special.

The Country Gift Shoppe #102-5325 Cordova Bay Rd 250.658.1812

Find something for everyone 5325 Cordova Bay Road, Next to Cordova Bay Golf Course.

Royal Copenhagen Blue Fluted Mega Porcelain Set Homebody Interiors at Mattick’s Farm carries unique linens, porcelain and home accessories. Find textiles and wares that blend heritage, thoughtful design and craftmanship. These traditional and hand made products bring a special quality to everyday and are made to last, with you and the environment in mind.

Homebody Interiors at Mattick’s Farm #127-5325 Cordova Bay Road 250.477.1101 www.homebodyinteriors.ca

Georg Jensen Champagne Cooler A beautiful, modern champagne cooler designed by Georg Jensen which can also be used as a vase.

Local artists and distinctive jewelry.

Home accessories by Martha Sturdy.

The Gallery at Mattick’s Farm #109-5325 Cordova Bay Road 250.658.8333 www.thegalleryatmatticksfarm.com

Adrienne’s Tea Garden New owners Sabine and Tony invite you to try new items in the deli, bakery and restaurant: paninis, pecan pies, Grand Marnier Mountains and several more gluten-free choices. The restaurant is now open earlier for breakfast, daily at 8:30 am. The deli opens at 8:00am. Our tea selection continues to grow, with more new teas coming. Book our restaurant for family get-togethers or meetings.

For specials, menus and information visit: 5325 Cordova Bay Road 250.658.1535 www.adriennesteagarden.com

The Ladybug Boutique Christmas returns to the Ladybug as our little Scandinavian Elves spread their wares throughout the store! Look for table linens from Danica and Ekelund, Dansk Glassware and other European specialties. Pottery from Bowen Island, Cornucopia Glass ornaments and handmade jewelry from Victoria artisans add local flavour. And, of course, our wonderful Danish and German candles: Scentless, smokeless and dripless, as always!

The Ladybug Boutique 117-5325 Cordova Bay Road 250.658.3807

this holiday season in a peaceful setting Open everyday. Free parking. Visit us at www.matticksfarm.com

Caty Lesca, a clothing line designed in Paris and made in Morocco, is casual contemporary elegance at its best.

Simon Chang, our Order of Canada Fashion champion, has outdone himself yet again with his autumn collection.

His coats are so outstanding they will make you love the chilly days.

Sunday’s Snowflakes at Mattick’s Farm 5325 Cordova Bay Road 250.658.8499 www.sundayssnowflakes.com

LIVING LARGE

over coat

BY Kayleigh von Wittgenstein

*the

specs

Brand: Coppley Fabric: Cashmere Price: $1,200 Found at: W&J Wilson

Every wardrobe needs its statement, investment pieces. A highquality coat in Victoria, the Land of Layers, is essential. Victoria has some spectacular options to help you get through our grey, clammy winter.

You can find luxurious coats from $500 to $1,500 at many stores in Victoria, such as Philip Nyren, W&J Wilson, Outlooks for Men, Scala Boutique, Baden-Baden Boutique, Image courtesy of Coppley

Hughes Clothing and others. These high price tags come with quality materials and construction, adding tenacity, longevity and style for the dollars spent.

Retailers don’t carry many of each style in this price range. This exclusivity adds to the allure.

For women, this cashmere, silk and wool blend, Audrey Hepburn-esque offering, available at Philip Nyren, may not keep you dry in the rain, but no

*the

specs

Brand: Hugo Boss Fabric: A blend of silk, wool, cashmere and Lycra Price: $1,350

Image courtesy of hugo boss canada

Found at: Philip Nyren

storm can dampen how fabulous you’ll look. Hugo Boss avoids the stuffiness that can come with the conventional houndstooth by using an oversized pattern and a playful, chic cut.

For men, a cashmere top coat never goes out of style and just donning one says you have arrived. But you will want to save this Coppley cashmere coat for our cool, dry days. Bring out the Gortex for our deluge days. VB

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93

CAR CULTURE An ex-racing driver finds his

super 7 bliss at Ennerdale Engineering

By STUART EASTWOOD

Set in pleasant surroundings outside Chemainus, Ennerdale Engineering looks the part of the traditional British village garage, down to the friendly dog and the ailing vintage Bentley reversing from the workshop. The Caterham Super 7 sports car in the showroom is the reason for my visit, but first, a chat with owner David Saville Peck in his comfortable office, among the photographs and mementoes from his racing career.

A war baby, Saville Peck was born in Canterbury, England and looks younger than his 68 years. He was 17 when he joined Martin Walters Ltd. in Kent as a trainee. The company produced Dormobile camper conversions and was a Jaguar, Bentley and Vauxhall dealer. He left the company after a series of motoring adventures, including a crash in an MG Magnette borrowed to visit a girlfriend. “An icy road and a tree resulted in my owing £350. I was making £5 a week. It was time for a job that paid some proper money,” he said with a laugh.

He joined the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and completed an outside diploma in engineering.

Saville Peck established Ennerdale Engineering/Ennerdale Racing in Canterbury in 1965. After succeeding at various levels of motor sports throughout Europe, he moved to Canada in 1972 and settled in Victoria, when Can Am racing was the premier race series in North America for high-performance sports cars. The sport attracted many top drivers of the time such as Mario Andretti, Jackie Stewart, and actor Paul Newman.

THE first Canadian to earn racing points Competing with entries from McLaren and Porsche, Saville Peck entered his own car and, having taken citizenship, became the first Canadian, as well as Canadian team owner, to score points in the series. “They were times of good racing, great friends and fabulous spectators,” recalls Saville Peck.

Racing at Road America in 1975, he was in an accident that nearly killed him. The next year, Saville Peck opened Ennerdale Engineering in Duncan. The shop was the authorized repair facility for BMW, Volvo, and Mercedes Benz, and serviced Aston Martins, Bentleys, and Ferraris. That same year the company became the Island distributor of Lotus. In 1980, the company moved to Chemainus.

While repair and service work are a substantial part of the business, Ennerdale is also home to sister company Super 7 Cars Inc., Canada’s only factory-authorized Caterham Super 7 manufacturer. Designed by Lotus founder Colin Chapman, the Lotus Seven is a brilliantly simple, no-frills sports car.

94

Manufacturing rights passed from Lotus to Caterham in 1973.

Ennerdale has completed 25 cars since 2003 and has four on order. While most stay close to home, one Caterham Super 7 Hayabusa has found a home in France. “It’s a fun car,” enthuses local owner Brian Kliman, who loves it for racing and hill climbs. “Having the Suzuki Hayabusa engine with a motorcycle tranny is pretty cool. You can wind it up to 10,000 rpm with not a strain on the engine.”

THE SUPER 7 Launches itself at the horizon Caterham has refined and developed the Super 7, but hasn’t compromised the car’s essential sporting character. Apart from an engine management computer, the Super 7 is about driving in its purest form. A number of engines producing varying amounts of horsepower are available, providing clients the opportunity to create a car that complements their driving requirements and skills. Of these, the 1300cc Suzuki GSXR Hayabusa edition rated at 200HP stands out, being the fastest road-legal certified car in Canada. With a six-speed sequential manual shift gearbox, the car accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 3.23 seconds. A unique feature results in the car having six gears in reverse. In 2003, under closed conditions at Nanaimo’s airport, Saville Peck set an unofficial speed record in reverse at 164 km/h, a feat verified by the RCMP. Saville Peck takes me out in his Super 7 Hayabusa, a rare opportunity to ride with a professional racing driver. The afternoon calm is shattered by the bark of the exhaust. With the car at proper operating temperature Saville Peck demonstrates its ability to accelerate as advertised. I’ve driven a fast Porsche, and I’ve travelled in a swift Ferrari. By comparison the Super 7 is seriously bonkers. The car doesn’t so much accelerate as launch itself at the horizon. The Super 7’s handling is responsive, predictable, and hugely entertaining, with Saville Peck’s driving skills extracting the best from the car. As Saville Peck notes, power without control is pointless. VB The Caterham Super 7 starts at $49,900. See ennerdale.ca.

Visits by appointment only.

95

WRY EYE

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12-08-29 2:03 PM

They fired their guns but the Canucks kept ’a comin’

By TOM HAWTHORN ILLUSTRATION SHELLEY DAVIES

A cocky America invaded Canada 200 years ago.

Conquering our land would be “a mere matter of marching,” insisted Thomas Jefferson in one of his less astute moments.

American troops occupied Laura Secord’s house, ordering her to serve them food and drink. She plied them with booze, overheard their battle plans, then rushed to warn the local British commander. The red coats and Iroquois allies repulsed the invaders. A chain of chocolate emporiums was then named in the heroine’s honour by a grateful nation. (I may have fudged some of the details here.) Unfortunately, it has proved difficult to build a national mythology around the Battle of Beaver Dams, which sounds like an episode of Hinterland Who’s Who. Only about 30 combatants died, which is what police in Detroit now consider a slow night.

The war continued. They burned down Muddy York. We burned down the White House for the win.

What did the United States get out of the War of 1812? Two songs — Francis Scott Key’s Star-Spangled Banner and Johnny Horton’s Battle of New Orleans. Only one of those became a 96

Billboard No. 1 hit and it is the one not sung at baseball games.

Two centuries later, our noisy neighbours in the basement claim to be the greatest democracy on the planet. Heck, I’m not convinced our American cousins have the greatest democracy on the continent. As those jokesters from the Canada Party argue, our frozen wasteland is “America, but Better.” They have suggested Canada take over the downstairs neighbour. “Not an invasion,” they insist, “an intervention.”

Invasion or intervention, you can expect push-back from a nation with a constitutional right to the “pursuit of happiness,” which means they don’t much cotton to being told what to do by no socialist-medicine-taking northern varmints.

No, we Canadians should continue our policy of stealth infiltration. In the 1950s, Americans were convinced Communists were everywhere — acting in the movies, teaching in their schools, putting fluoride in their water, even hiding under their beds. While distracted by Red witch-hunts, those patriots entirely missed the maple invasion slowly pouring across the border, insinuating themselves into all facets of American life. Why, you’d hardly know we were there.

Play spot the Canuck: Kiddie crooner Justin Bieber? Canadian. Michael Bublé?

Canadian. The Band? Neil Young? David Letterman’s musical sidekick? Canadian. Céline, Avril, Joni, Alanis, Shania?

Canadian. Big-eared electronic dance DJ deadmau5? Canadian.

Titanic director James Cameron? Canadian. Cutie patootie actors Michael Cera and Cory Monteith? Canadian. Cutie patootie actresses Ellen Page and Jessica Paré? Canadian.

Let’s Make a Deal host Monty Hall? Jeopardy! quizmaster Alex Trebek? Capt. Kirk and Scotty from Star Trek? Canadian.

John Candy, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Carrey, Dave Foley, Mike Myers, Leslie Nielsen, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short? Canadian.

Jennifer Granholm, the firebrand former Democratic governor of Michigan who made a keynote address at the Democratic convention? Canadian. Conservative political pundits David Brooks, Charles Krauthammer and David Frum (son of Barbara) all have a Canuck connection.

With so many of us having successfully infiltrated, we have lulled our southern allies into thinking we’re pretty much similar. With Americans going to the polls this month, we should quickly launch the final volley in our two-century-old plan — finally to end the War of 1812 by allowing ourselves to be absorbed into the United States.

Canada agrees to become the 51st state in exchange for adding a maple leaf to the 50 stars on the flag. Our population is about the same as California’s, so we’d get about 55 votes in the Electoral College. Barack Obama outpolls Mitt Romney by 68-10 in Canada (and by 50-19 even in Alberta, aka Texas North). A close contest becomes a landslide. America gets health care and, overnight, becomes a world curling power.

Meanwhile, we Canadians get our hands on the mightiest military machine history has ever seen, and its imagepromoting factory, Hollywood. Today, America. Tomorrow, the world. VB 97

SECRETS & LIVES

By shannon moneo photo by gary mckinstry

Why did you start the Out of Hand Artisan Fair 24 years ago?

There was a real need for a craft fair where people went through an adjudication committee and had their work assessed for quality, craftsmanship, originality. Say you were an amazing potter; you could be in a show with someone who puts glitter on bobby pins.

Do you shop there?

I’ve bought art for the wall, pottery, clothing, jewelry, body-care products.

Who comes to the show, now the Island’s biggest?

It’s professional exhibitors who are part of the circuit, doing shows across BC and the country. The buyers are a group of loyal customers who’ve attended for years. Eighty per cent are women. People aged 40 to 60 are the largest cohort but we’re getting younger women, particularly because of new features we’re doing like fashion shows.

We also get people who fly in from gift stores across Canada, seeking contacts with artisans.

Why the change to “artisan” from “craft” fair?

Today, if you say “craft,” for some it connotes toilet roll covers.

Craftsmanship’s involved in producing every piece but there’s more of an artistic vision. We’ve got artisan foods, fashion designers. Young people aren’t necessarily doing traditional crafts.

They approach it creatively rather than a guild approach, like woodworker or metalworker skills. I flippantly refer to the next generation as my young moms looking for something to do. Creative ones are coming up with products for babies or children.

How do you choose artisans?

They submit photos or samples of their work. We look for good craftsmanship and an original idea. At this point it’s mostly me judging. Earlier, I had an adjudication committee and I’d bring experts from different media.

Having done this so long, I know what I want. I need to ensure there’s a good range of work. This year, there are about 100 spaces. For something new, we’ve invited a number of Etsy [a website connecting producers of handmade goods with buyers] vendors, most from the Island.

How have tastes changed with the times and an aging population?

Twenty years ago, probably pottery, earthenware, homey things were big sellers. Now it’s artisan foods, jewelry.

With an aging population, people aren’t so much looking to decorate their homes as to decorate themselves, or they’re buying for grandchildren, loved ones.

Do you make money from the fair?

It’s my business. I have to make money, but I make less than I used to. Expenses have gone up. You can’t pass them onto the consumer or the craftsperson. I rework my budget. The fair’s a year-round project, not something I throw together the month before.

What did you do before you settled at your Sol Farm near Duncan?

I graduated from SFU. I met my husband in Mexico. He was from California. He wanted to get out of the US and live in the country. I said, “Why not?” We were on the Island, trying to find a community. I had a Volkswagen Beetle. It broke down in Fanny Bay so we rented a house there but felt

Ramona Froehle-Schacht, 58 Founder of the Out of Hand Artisan Fair, Nov. 23-25, 2012 at the Crystal Garden

isolated. Denman Island wasn’t far. We lived there seven years then moved to Victoria in 1984 and opened Out of Hand Gallery, started the craft fair, raised our son Jeremy and his older sister Jessica. As the kids moved on, we thought we could return to the land and grow food. Having been self-employed our entire lives, we see the farm as a working retirement project.

Your secret extravagance?

Ohhhh, shoes. The full range, any colour. I can’t pass a shoe store. There’s a great Duncan shoe store, Cardino’s. I try to stay away from it.

Your favourite possession?

My BlackBerry because I’m an incredibly busy person and I can juggle so many things. I’m down in the field weeding and I’m staying on top of Out of Hand stuff. VB This interview has been condensed and edited.

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